Through “Their” Eyes

Abstract

Socially motivated filmmaking involving issues of children and violence often oscillates uneasily between two opposing tendencies: the committed and the exploitative film. As Owain Jones claims, the depiction of violence by and against children is in itself a powerful and significant theme “because of the way society considers children as natural and vulnerable, the violence that they, and all, are exposed to is more visible” (201–2). One way in which films about children and youth violence might engage viewers politically and avoid the exploitative element is by bringing the adult spectator’s perception closer to the child’s subjective experience and worldview through the use of inner focalization. The focus of this essay shall be on the children, the violence directed against them or committed by them, and how the degree of voice and focalization they are allowed by the filmic style might either activate the audience’s deepest fears or elicit sympathy and understanding, perhaps even empathy.1 To explore these concerns I will examine two very different films that depict the lives of marginalized urban children and youth: Rodrigo D: No futuro2 (Victor Gaviria 1990) from Colombia and El Bola (Achero Manas 2000) from Spain.3