The invention of childhood

'The Invention of Childhood' invites the spectator to reflect upon what it means to be a child in our contemporary world. Based on the principle that not every child is allowed to enjoy childhood, the film shows how the concept of childhood, as a synonym for innocence and fragility, started to develop in 16th and 17th centuries as a result of the conquests of Humanist ideas. In Brazil, a country discovered at the same time childhood was invented in Europe, modernity has been very unevenly distributed. The director interviewed children from Brazilian states and reveals that, at the closing of the 20th century, the ideal childhood dreamed of by Renaissance men is doubly threatened. In the interior of the North-Eastern region, children still work in sugar cane and sisal plantations and quarries in exchange for food, or a few elite schools and sophisticated neighbourhoods the dream of a childhood free from labour and worries is replaced with an exhausting routine made up of activities aimed at preparing children for a highly competitive adult life. Beyond the unjust economic gap that separates these children, the advent of an essentially audiovisual culture - which has exposed children to the same information available to adults - and the perversion of values in a consumerist and narcissistic culture have leveled out all differences between children and adults, thus definitely and irreversibly robbing children of their innocence.