Abstract

SOSENSKI, Susana. Unhealthy Entertainment: Cinemas and Children in Mexico City in the 1920s. Secuencia [online]. 2006, n.66, pp.35-64. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i66.980.

This text examines the relationship between childhood and cinema in Mexico City during the 1920s and explores the impact of the movies on the practices and experiences of children and teenagers. At that time, the cinema was regarded as an "unhealthy influence" because it opposed the idea of a modern childhood, and promoted crime, unhealthiness and immorality. The analysis of child audiences, their experiences and creations of meaning as spectators as well as the social debates triggered by the presence of a child audience in movie halls is the focus of this article. The author seeks to show how the 1920s saw the emergence of a public reflection on the need to produce a specific type of cinema for children and adolescents that would not only differentiate them from adult tastes and entertainment but also perform a didactic function.

Keywords : Cinema; history of childhood; adolescence; hygiene; crime; education; post-revolution.

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