ABSTRACT Children in front of the camera in nonfictional situations are fascinating and often unusually affecting. Quite possibly – and legitimately – the adult viewer might assume that children have not yet learnt how to ‘perform’, an oft-loaded term that carries connotations of inauthenticity and pretence and, in turn, signals the ability to be someone or something other than oneself. Stripped of knowingness, a child’s tears or expressions of wonder become affecting because they seem genuine and spontaneous. This article looks in detail at four very different documentaries (‘Seven Up!’, Être et avoir, Capturing the Friedmans and Tarnation) in order to analyse notions of childhood innocence and performativity in front of the documentary camera. I intentionally compare documentaries from the pre-Smartphone era, when children take selfies several times a day and share images of themselves readily on social media. Cameras are now omnipresent, and children outperform adults when it comes to how to use them. Although we might still want to believe in the young child’s ‘innocence’, ignorance of the camera or of the power dynamics of voyeurism are no longer corollaries of such ‘innocence’.

中文翻译：

---

“从纯真到经验：四部纪录片中的儿童形象”

摘要在非虚构的情况下，镜头前的孩子会令人着迷，并且通常会受到异常影响。成年观众很可能（而且是合法地）认为孩子们尚未学会如何“表演”，这是一个经常装载的术语，带有虚假和假装的含义，并反过来暗示了成为某人或其他事物的能力。自己。剥夺了知识，孩子的眼泪或奇妙的表情由于看起来真实而自发而受到影响。本文详细研究了四个截然不同的纪录片（“七人间！”，“Êtreet avoir，Captureing the Friedmans and Tarnation”），以便在纪录片相机前分析童年天真和表演的观念。我特意比较了智能手机时代之前的纪录片，当孩子每天进行几次自拍照并在社交媒体上随时分享自己的照片时。如今，相机无处不在，在使用方法上，儿童的表现要优于成人。尽管我们可能仍想相信幼儿的“纯真”，但对照相机或窥淫癖的力量动力的无知不再是这种“纯真”的必然结果。