Mark Cousins curates season of rare childhood films, the Cinema of Childhood
The selection is inspired by Cousins' own doc/film essay, A Story of Children and Film
In Mark Cousins’ documentary, A Story of Children and Film, the critic and filmmaker trawls through the canons of film history and pulls out the most memorable, revealing and poignant portrayals of childhood. Steven Spielberg’s ET receives a mention, as does Ken Loach’s Kes and Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, but the majority of the films featured are those that even the most dedicated cinephiles might struggle to track down.
Cue an inspired idea from Cousins, in partnership with Edinburgh’s Filmhouse cinema, to tour a season of films that feature in his film, many of which are rarely shown on the big screen. The Cinema of Childhood season begins in April taking place in independent cinemas across the UK including the Filmhouse and Glasgow Film Theatre. There are opportunities to see three films from Iranian filmmaker Mohammad-Ali Talebi, The Boot, Bag of Rice and Willow and Wind, accompanied by Q&As with Talebi himself (the director’s first visit to the UK). Later in the season you can look forward to Senegalese drama The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun, about a girl with crutches who sets out to sell newspapers and Long Live the Republic, a Czechoslovakian film from the 60s about a young boy living in the countryside at the end of the Second World War.
Filmhouse, Edinburgh and GFT, Glasgow, from Fri 11 Apr.