ABSTRACT
A true appreciation for the ingenuity and reach of Boyhood is best informed by understanding how it aligns with and deviates from the history of children's depictions in cinema, and by a comparison to other attempts at long-duration film productions, which themselves have an interesting place in cinema history. Realism is the domain of documentaries, many of which also eschew special effects for the sake of efficient storytelling dependent on veracity. Further, because documentaries are not typically bound by the complications of casting actors or the demands of a restricted shooting schedule, directors have often been able to film for many years in search of a complete testament to their given concern. Before the 1930s, Hollywood featured relatively few child protagonists in movies at all. Boyhood could be released in 2014 with a protagonist and a story that were not beholden to current conditions in order to demonstrate relevance.
