The Dionysian time of childhood

Abstract

This study examines the imagery of the documentary Territórios do Brincar [Territories of Play] (2015), directed by David Reeks and Renata Meireles. Guided by the framework of the Philosophy of Difference, the filmic conversation follows the wanderings of children across various regions of Brazil. The objective is to reflect, through these images, on the concept of becoming-child, inspired by the Nietzschean provocation in The Three Metamorphoses. The child—whether alone or in a group, with a wandering, joyful, and restless body—lives to discover and create experimentations. They do not imitate, as they continuously create their own singular maps. Children live on the fringes: half-animal, half-human. Neither camel nor lion, they are the Nietzschean child. The analysis demonstrates that an attentive philosophical gaze allows one to find the materialization of the concept of becoming-child within these children. On the screen, the concept becomes alive and lived through their bodies and stories. This study confirms the Deleuzian idea that filmmakers are thinkers who write with images. Children, in the form of images and life, compel us to experience the sensation of the affirmative power that lies dormant in the adult body. It is they who teach us to rediscover the potential of becoming-child and to transform it into a joyful, possible, and transformative experimentation.