Kidulthood

Activity 1 

Why do you think the title ‘Kidulthood’ was chosen? Think about all the different parts of the word - what associations does it have and what impression does it give of what you are about to see?

I think Kidulthood was given its name because its about a group of kids which are living an adult life and not a normal adult life at that, a lot of the older generations would not expect a group of 15 year olds to be doing the things that they are doing. Seeing the title of the movie without seeing the film gives you an impression that there is going to be two main themes; violence and youths.  

Setting the tone

The action is set in a school playground. How does this contradict traditional associations of the playground and what effect does this have?

The beginning part of the movie is set in the school programme. We associate playgrounds as a safe place where kids play, but in Kidulthood we see; violence, drugs, thievery and adultery. The effect of this sends a shock to the audience especially older generations of people. 

How is tension and/or aggression conveyed through the body language and facial expression of each group of characters?

Tension and aggression is displayed through body language and facial expressions of each of the group characters by they way they walk around loosely and openly. the facial expressions of the characters in this film are always very angry through out the film apart from the most of the girls they usually have normal expressions on their face. 

Is it easy to identify the ‘outsiders’? If so, how?

In this film it is very easy to identity the outsiders as they are usually being the ones bullied in this film or look in fear when they are with or near the non outsiders. 

How does the filmmaker build tension into the story of Sam and Claire at this point?

The film maker builds tension between Sam and Claire by the way he and others show such fear to Sam openly.

What words would you use to describe the images of Trife we see in the opening

sequence of the film? How do they support what is going on around him? How do they contrast with them? What do you assume he is doing? 

The images of Trife in the opening would make the audience describe him as a thug and violent youth. Those words that comes to mind of him in the opening scene support the things that is happening around him because there are lots of thugs around him and youth violence is predominant around him. I assumed he was making some sort of weapon like a knife but came to realise it was worse than a knife.

How does the soundtrack add to the feeling of tension?  

The soundtrack adds to the feeling of tension because it is a youthful song and the lyrics are sort of describing what is going on at the current time. 

Representation of young people

What are the main stories in the film? Are these representative of the majority of young people?

The main stories in the film is about bullying which happens in most school and sex, violence and drugs which are all very common in a high number of young peoples life. I wouldn't say it was a representation of all young people would i say it was a representation of a fair amount of youths.  

What kinds of activities do we see the ‘kids’ doing throughout the day?

We see a few activities of what the 'kids' do through out the day; multiple drugs, underage sex, pregnancy, thievery, violence, shopping, prostitution and violence with weapons. 

How do you feel about the language used in the film? Is it an accurate representation of how young people speak?

This is definitely not a representations of how young people talk nowadays, without being prejudice or stereotypical youths or adults that speak like that are in social housing or poor areas of the country bar a few. 

How do we feel about the incident where Trife is accused of stealing the Burberry cap? How does the filmmaker influence our thoughts by the way in which it is presented?

I think this incident in the Burberry shop makes you feel sorry for him because he gets pulled back for stealing because of the colour of his skin or his clothes. the filmmaker shows that people do stereotype youths a lot. 

How are the adults in the film represented? 
The adults in the film are represented in mainly a negative way because most of these adults in the film excluding their parents which are involved with these 15 year olds are involved with them for all the wrong reasons.

Who is seen in a positive light 
The adults in the film which are seen in a positive light is usually the parents who are ignorant to what their 15 year old kids are up to but all seem to be nice and genuine.

Who is seen in a negative light? 

The adults in the film which are shown in a negative way are usually the ones which have a fair amount of money, like trife's uncle and the actor who was having sex with a 15 year old girl and the people working in the burberry shop, but as I stated the adults in the film which seem to have money to their name are the people which are shown in a negative light.

How do you feel about the way in which young people are represented by the media in a) film In film young people are represented in all different ways some good, some bad.

b) print media Young people are represented by the media not very well most of the time, as always the media usually only pick up on the bad things people do because its more interesting and has that shock factor which people like to read, so then people get the wrong idea of us youths and think we are all same, especially older citizens.

What do you think the reaction of someone aged 50+ might be to the film? What would you say to them? I think a viewer aged 50+ whom has watched this film might start to be more conscious around teenagers and they will probably think that this is what all teenagers are like in certain area's. Also I think they might be a little shocked about the violence in the film, as violence when they were 15 wouldn't of been as predominant between each other. I would say one thing to a someone aged 50+ after watching this film "we are not all like that".

Do you think the film raises issues of gender or race?

I don't think is raises any issues of gender or especially race because I believe in the past people suffered from those two things harsher.

In what ways do you think the film could help empower young people?

I think this film could empower young people to stop some of the things they are doing or even stay away from the things it shows in this film because it shows the consequences, which many young people forget that there are consequences to the actions they do or take. 

Activity 2

Kidultood has been classified as a ‘docu- drama’. If you had to choose one that 

represented the story line correctly, documentary or drama, which would you chose 

and why?

I would have to choose drama as I don't think you could call it a documentary as it is 

exaggerated for the area its set in 'west London'. I lived in west London for 10 years and the 

majority of west London is not as bad as it is made out to be in this film.

How does this film differ from ‘Aileen’ in terms of style, codes and conventions and 

narrative? 

one this film does not have any voice overs which the majority of documentaries have that's 

another contributing factor as to why its more of a drama. secondly the music is completely 

different, all the music is kidulthood is urban and very city like the music in Aileen is very western 

and 80's. lastly there is no archive footage in kidulthood which is another thing most 

documentaries have.

 If you were asked to produce a ‘docu-soap’ what would it be based on? 

If I was asked to produce a docu-soap it would definitely be on upper class college/6th form 

students because no one ever really covers only the upper class on things like soaps, and I think 

it would be interesting to a lot of people