A Child Went Forth (1942)
1942 · Ephemeral film · 19 min · dir. Joseph Losey
- Family
Synopsis
A line from Whitman, "There was a child went forth every day," starts this film: a visit to a farm that's a summer camp and progressive school for exploration and discovery. The children, as young as two or three, have room and time to question, wonder, and learn. We build a wading pool, use tools, climb and swing, bath a dog - and learn to live together. There are spats, and little adult interference. A tree house sparks children's imagination. They visit a neighboring farm, play with the…
Synopsis from TMDb
Details
- Director
- Joseph Losey
- Writer
- Munro Leaf
- Studio
- National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators
- Released
- 1942-01-01
- Running time
- 19 minutes
Cast & crew
Joseph Losey Director
Lloyd Gough
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★★ · A lovely documentary of 3 to 7 year old kids in a country haven during World War II · KidsAmerica · 2005-07-28
A Child Went Forth is a pleasant bit of film that evidenced to frightened parents suffering the London bombings during World War II, that a safe haven existed in the English countryside where for a while they could place their youngest children out of harm's way. The title is from a Walt Whitman poem about childhood...basically that every day a child lives, anything he touches becomes part of that child forevermore. A flower petal, a puppy, cool pond water, kind words from his adult caregiver, a loving hug, yummy food treats...anything at all. I'll provide a bit of the verse for reference…
★★★ · Children at Play on the Farm · Christine Hennig · 2003-10-18
This 40s film documents a progressive summer camp for young children, one that allows them to spend their time in free play, learning to solve their own problems. Mostly what we see are idylic images of small children playing freely in a farm setting. Adult supervision seems minimal, but the kids never seem to get really out of control, so you know that there must have been some limits. This film recalls a time when people seemed to be a lot less afraid of children or for childrenÃÂÃÂI doubt whether much of this would fly today. The kids are genuinely cute and charming and the scenes seem…
★★★ · Innocent, but VERY suspicious.. · Spuzz · 2003-03-24
Throughout watching 'A Child Went Forth' I kept asking myself who this film was made for. For kids? For Adults? This totally looks like some kind of Kamp Kult. Why is everyone, including the counsellours, wearing blue coveralls? Why are there gratitous nude shots of kids in this film? This is too bizarre to comprehend. Lovely music though.
★★★ · Poetic & Idealistic · ERD · 2006-02-28
Perhaps during W.W.II, the only way to keep British children safe was to send them to the country away from the bombings. However, during peacetime- I find sending 3 & 4 year olds to sleep away camps premature.(I can understand preschool day camps for working parents) In general, little children must be supervised very carefully by the proper amount of counselors. I found some of the activities dangerous(saws, hammers?). This "arty" film seemed unrealistic and too poetically idealistic.
