In Closing: The Power of Films about Racial Childhoods in the Time of Rampant Death

The self-sovereignty that children must possess resists cultivation of docility and their use by others in a way that is not in the child’s self-interest. Adults have a role in supporting that project rather than controlling children and worsening their situations. This book aims to expand the relation between the viewer and the film, to transform that relationship through agentic attunement, which centers the child and young person in a world of adults who speak about experiences that are long in their past yet continue to shape them. Films give hope, making the world big—they connect people with each other intimately when they need it most. The worlds films represent help people to understand their our own world, including the fundamental need to be around one another. This book attempts to clarify the powerful work film does to help people live in the face of so much death.