Youth Film Research Articles

Love is Glorious: The Analysis of Emotional Education Culture of Film “To Our Youth That Is Fading Away”

About the educational films, most of the existing studies in academia and culture are based on the construction of theoretical perspectives, or the discussion of the narrative content and the transformation of themes of a certain genre, but there is a lack of important educational issues based on the analysis of film texts. As a popular narrative genre of educational films in China since the beginning of this century, “youth narrative” has a wide range of communication audiences, but for the audience, there is a need for more in-depth discussion of its educational meaning. Therefore, it is necessary to select typical case of “youth film” in China, describe the emotional education in detail, and try to put forward the theoretical category of “emotional education culture”, to show that for teenagers, the complex, mutual, reverberative and dislocated relationship of emotional space poses a great challenge to education.

The manifestation and impact of the concept of “Three Yi” in the book of changes in the international dissemination of Chinese ethnic music: a case study of works from “Looking China Youth Film Project”

The manifestation and impact of the concept of “Three Yi” in the book of changes in the international dissemination of Chinese ethnic music: a case study of works from “Looking China Youth Film Project”

An Exploration of Realism in Death Narratives in Contemporary Chinese and Korean New Youth Films from a Global Cultural Perspective

With the advent of economic globalization leading to cultural globalization, countries are integrating and innovating their indigenous cultures while absorbing and borrowing from the film cultures of other nations. Chinese and Korean New Youth Films employ a multi-genre narrative mode combining "youth" with realism. This paper conducts a comparative study of Chinese new youth film Better Days and the Korean new youth film Next Sohee, exploring the influence of global cultural perspectives on Chinese and Korean New Youth Films from the perspective of death narratives, the realistic application of death narratives in Chinese and Korean New Youth Films, as well as the differentiated narrative strategies of Chinese and Korean New Youth Films. This study further extends to the real significance and value of death imagery in youth films.

변종 가족의 출현, 청소년의 미완 가족 만들기 -2010년대 청소년 ‘가출팸’ 영화를 중심으로-

This study focuses on the films “Another's Melody(2014)”, “Dream Jane(2016)”, and “Park Hwa-young(2018)”, which are based on “Gachulfam” among independent youth films of the 2010s. The aim was to examine the aspects of reproduction and their meanings. Movies dealing with youth deviance continue to exist throughout this age. The meaning of runaway, which was understood as rebellion and beating, changed with the times, and “Gachulfam” became a precarious youth in the 2010s. In this situation, this study noted that the appearance of the “Gachulfam” made by adolescents from post-family families can be interpreted as a way of living and revealing their consciousness in the reality of crisis. First, the “home” as a fluid and open space created by the youth of the three “Gachulfam” films reveal the fear of isolation and causes relationship obsession. Second, the “Gachulfam” made by the youth is a kind of abnormal family that is not recognized in the existing society. However, owing to the irresponsible and incomplete appearance of adults, including parents, teenagers are gaining an upper hand in power relations and the positivity of family building. Third, these families are completed by re-calling the “dedicated mother”. However, the pursuit of motherhood, which appears in “Gachulfam”, stands at a different point from the existing maternal ideology that led to the establishment of patriarchal authority for the survival of the family. Therefore, it is meaningful because it has the possibility of an incomplete but new family.

The Conflict Structure of Korean Out-of-Family Youth Films: Focusing on 2011-2023 Independent Films and Art Films

The Conflict Structure of Korean Out-of-Family Youth Films: Focusing on 2011-2023 Independent Films and Art Films

Editorial

The editorial introduces this issue of Journal of Scandinavian Cinema (JSCA) that in particular explores the representation of children and films for young audiences in the Nordic countries. The issue includes an article on the child figure in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata and an In Focus section with four short subjects about youth films in Nordic cinema, followed by an article on the representation of women in a Finnish silent film and a conference report from China. The editorial summarizes the main arguments and contributions of each article and highlights the relevance and importance of studying cinematic representation in the Nordic countries.

Towards audience-centric film funding: New strategies for commissioning youth films in Denmark

This article investigates the changed market conditions for production of films for young audiences in the on-demand age. More precisely, I analyse how the public funding of films for children and youth in Denmark has undergone significant change in response to intensified competition and waning audience interest. From the outset of the Commissioner’s Scheme for films for children and youth at the Danish Film Institute (DFI), the state subsidized main financier in the national industry, the institution has changed away from selective funding based on cultural evaluation criteria towards audience-centric funding based on market orientation and data-driven audience insights. The DFI’s objective is to reach young audiences more precisely with films that are relevant to them. Yet, one of the implications so far of this practice has been that funds earmarked by law for films for children and youth are spent on films for adults, with significant ramifications for domestic film culture for young audiences.

Introduction: Youth cultures in Nordic cinema

Youth cultures have had a ubiquitous presence on Nordic screens for more than seven decades and are currently experiencing a surge in visibility across streaming platforms. However, studies pertaining to the production, representation and reception of youth film in Nordic cinema have been scarce. This introduction to the In Focus section ‘Youth cultures in Nordic cinema’ provides background and context for the section and presents its four contributing articles.

Smoking in Netflix feature films and youth protection

With the aim of protecting minors, the World Health Organization has recommended classifying films with smoking scenes as unsuitable for children and adolescents. In recent years, films have increasingly been viewed via video streaming services - a trend which has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic - which poses new challenges for the protection of minors. To examine the frequency of smoking scenes in Netflix feature films and the age recommendations for Netflix productions with smoking scenes. A total of 235 films that were made available for streaming exclusively by the Netflix platform in 2021 and 2022 were content coded in order to find out (1) how high the proportion of smoke-free films was in this film sample, (2) how often smoking scenes occurred in these films and (3) the proportion of films with smoke scenes classified as appropriate for young people in Germany and the USA. All films with an age rating of under 16 were considered suitable for children and young people. Smoking scenes occurred in 113 of 235 analyzed films (48.1%). Of the 113 films with smoking scenes, 57 (50.4%) in Germany and 26 films (23.0%) in the USA were classified as youth films (p<0.001). A total of 3,310 smoking scenes were registered. Of these, 39.4% (n=1,303) were in films with youth ratings in Germany, and in Netflix USA this proportion was 15.8% (n=524). Smoking scenes are a common feature in Netflix movies. Neither in the US nor in Germany does Netflix adhere to the recommendations of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to restrict access by young people to films depicting smoking. However, the protection of minors in the US is better than in Germany, since half of the Netflix films with smoking scenes in Germany were rated as suitable for minors, in the USA less than a quarter.

Nurturing youth film literacy: Post-qualitative arts-based inquiry into critical self-awareness

Post-digital, as a timeframe set, raises specific concerns for young adults engaged in artistic and cultural activities, seeking to establish a sustainable livelihood within a semi-rural South African context. They grapple with issues such as determining their positionality within a world marked by fading boundaries between the physical and digital. To better understand the post-digital impact on experiential learning opportunities for young adults, the authors explored the specific ways and extent to which active engagement in shortfilm-making contributes to developing critical self-awareness among the participating post-school youth. An assemblage of transformative theories and concepts, rather than pre-determined methodologies, guided this inquiry that extended beyond the development of career and workplace competencies. The strengths of spaciousness and in-between boundary positions provided by the spider’s thread metaphor served as a useful methodological tool. Moving beyond the limitations of traditional discourse and content analysis, multimodal discourse analysis in combination with a modified, six-category measuring instrument was used to explore (analyse) the evidence (data) created as products of active participant engagement in a shortfilm-making project, over a 10-month period in 2020. Findings revealed that, for the participants, it was by moving from physical self-centred understandings of reality to experiential creations of authentic reality (shortfilm-productions) and involving an expanded awareness of those alternative possibilities that nurtured their potential transpersonal growth.Transdisciplinary Contribution: A synthesis of arts-based, post-qualitative and developmental phenomenographic approaches was employed to create, explore and communicate evidence in ways that present a holistic picture of alternative pathways to knowledge production.

Cline Sciamma's water lilies: adolescent sexual discovery and the expression of sexual desire

Cline Sciammas 2007 youth film Water Lilies presents the sexual desires and discoveries of three girls in the midst of their gender identity in a very feminine form of expression. The film does not specify the specific sexual orientation of the characters, but rather shows the confusion of adolescence and the pain of teenage throbbing in the process of exploration. The article analyzes how the three girls cope with and express their adolescent sexuality in three ways: firstly, the flexible use of the water element, which represents femininity, and the use of the central axis of the camera to construct highly stylized scenes; secondly, it explores the significance of the girls body language in the expression of desire, criticizing the habit of thinking about women as objects of male desire, and showing the expression of desire for the same sex and men from the female perspective; finally, the film uses camera language (such as the use of filters, voyeuristic shots, etc.) to visualize the sense of touch in female desire, and shows the delicate emotional changes in the film through the analysis of continuous shots.

Listening to audiences to remain relevant: Audience research as a new production method for Scandinavian screen cultures in transition

This article explores the new production strategies for reaching audiences currently being put into practice in the Danish screen industry. Building on studies and theories of the changed audience–industry relation following the breakthrough of streaming, this qualitative case study investigates how audience research was implemented in the production framework behind the Danish youth film Smuk (Pretty Young Thing) () to increase the film’s relevance with young audiences. The analysis highlights the differences between traditional story research and audience research as well as the challenges and opportunities of involving audience feedback in the early stages of the creative process. Finally, I discuss the implications of this new approach for classical European film industries that consider film a cultural good rather than a strictly commercial product.

Precious: Identity, Adaptation, and the African-American Youth Film

Precious: Identity, Adaptation, and the African-American Youth Film

Smoking in Netflix feature films and youth protection

With the aim of protecting minors, the World Health Organization has recommended classifying films with smoking scenes as unsuitable for children and adolescents. In recent years, films have increasingly been viewed via video streaming services - a trend which has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic - which poses new challenges for the protection of minors. To examine the frequency of smoking scenes in Netflix feature films and the age recommendations for Netflix productions with smoking scenes. A total of 235 films that were made available for streaming exclusively by the Netflix platform in 2021 and 2022 were content coded in order to find out (1) how high the proportion of smoke-free films was in this film sample, (2) how often smoking scenes occurred in these films and (3) the proportion of films with smoke scenes classified as appropriate for young people in Germany and the USA. All films with an age rating of under 16 were considered suitable for children and young people. Smoking scenes occurred in 113 of 235 analyzed films (48.1%). Of the 113 films with smoking scenes, 57 (50.4%) in Germany and 26 films (23.0%) in the USA were classified as youth films (p<0.001). A total of 3,310 smoking scenes were registered. Of these, 39.4% (n=1,303) were in films with youth ratings in Germany, and in Netflix USA this proportion was 15.8% (n=524). Smoking scenes are a common feature in Netflix movies. Neither in the US nor in Germany does Netflix adhere to the recommendations of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to restrict access by young people to films depicting smoking. However, the protection of minors in the US is better than in Germany, since half of the Netflix films with smoking scenes in Germany were rated as suitable for minors, in the USA less than a quarter.

Localized hip hop authenticity in early 2000s Finland: Retaining representations of race, class and gender in Beauty and the Bastard

Beauty and the Bastard (), a pioneering and award-winning youth film set within the emerging Finnish hip hop culture, draws on early twenty-first-century music-related youth films produced in the United States and reaches out thematically and musically to both African American and Finnish hip hop culture and rap music. Set in a predominantly White Finnish society, the film confronts many representational challenges concerning diversity, whether racial, class or gender. Based on contextual analysis of audio-visual representations, we discuss how such categories contribute to the construction of the film’s ‘authenticity’ – a key notion of hip hop culture – as a localized representation. We argue that in its project of localizing hip hop authenticity in early 2000s Finland, the film retains, rather than challenges or questions, representations of normative Whiteness, oppressive class distinctions and unequal gender norms.

Explorations in transcultural documentary: a study of the Looking China Youth Film Project

Explorations in transcultural documentary: a study of the Looking China Youth Film Project

Enhancing the international appeal of Chinese culture through the looking China Youth Film Project: a cese study at Sanxingdui

Enhancing the international appeal of Chinese culture through the looking China Youth Film Project: a cese study at Sanxingdui

Looking China Youth film project: untold stories a small handbook on documentary or how to shooting successfully in unknown circumstances

Theoretical and practical work in the education of students of film and television directing are important and somehow go hand in hand. The choice of the topic, the director’s attitude, the question of the concept, are themes that are thought about more and more as the level of knowledge and understanding increases. What happens when a student faces with an unexpected challenge, with an unknown topic, in a new environment? How much education, and how much coping, intuitiveness, talent, are important for making the decisions?

The diversification on the grounds of transcultural paradigm in Looking China Youth Film Program

The diversification on the grounds of transcultural paradigm in Looking China Youth Film Program

Mini-documentaries and the invited gaze: an effective way of cross-cultural communication

The nature of mini-documentary is to be true to the story. But being true is not necessarily the replicate of the original, instead, the director can restructure the story based on the original and make it more artistic and enjoyable for the audience. It would be ideal if viewers from different walks of life can take pleasure in interpreting the film in their own ways. A recap of the documentaries about China both from home and abroad reveals either the bias or superficialness to a large extent. The long-term and systematic representation of the people and stories about China is what we need to shed the bias and the misrepresentations. This paper takes the Looking China Youth Film Project as the case to analyze a cross-cultural communication model that enables the international young filmmakers to experience and know about China.