Casually filming his nephew and niece on a day off led director Mark Cousins to embark on a quest to explore the many emotions children bring to the screen in this new landmark film A Story of Children and Film.

In this post-screening Q&A Cousins explains how he never aimed for a comprehensive history of children's involvement in cinema, and in some senses this was freeing. During the course of the film he takes queues from the footage of his nephew and niece - for example, what stages in shyness and performance do they go through, and how can this be related to the representations of children in films from around the world?

In addition to the original 12 minute footage of his family, Mark uses examples from 53 films from 25 countries and juxtaposes classics such as ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and Kes alongside lesser known masterpieces such as Abbas Kiarostami's Two Solutions For One Problem, Astrid Henning-Jensen's Pelle Alone In The World and Shinji Sômai's heart-wrenching Moving.

Cousins talks to Watershed Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove and answers questions from the audience about how he turned the film from idea to reality, the differences between child and adult actors, about bullying, isolation and the frame that cinema offers.

Related Links:
A Story of Children and Film

Posted on Thu 10 April 2014.

---