The rebellious youth culture of the U.S. in the1950s emerged as a notorious subject, especially in cinema, opening up taboo topics around sexuality, crime, and drug abuse, and leading to heated public controversy, both domestically and abroad. Films such as The Wild One(1953), Blackboard Jungle(1955), and Rebel Without a Cause (1955) addressed the failures of the educational system, the increase in juvenile crime, and the erosion of traditional family values. The public responded alternately with enthusiasm and widespread moral panic. In Europe, the influence of American movies dealing with juvenile delinquency became a concern; Rebel Without a Cause was the only movie of the 1950s to be denied a censorship certificate in Britain. These films were called “juvenile delinquency movies,” which evolved into a genre of filmmaking in the 1950s in the United States.
In 1995, Larry Clark’s first film, Kids, depicted crude, reckless teenage characters whose only ambitions were casual sex and getting high. The film caused a stir resulting in public outcry over the explicit content of Clark’s film that led to fervid criticism and even censorship. Clark’s subsequent films, Bully (2001) and Ken Park (2002), provoked similar reactions from the public and critics for their frank nudity and the audacity of their subject matter.
This paper investigates the development of juvenile delinquency movies in the postwar U.S., the challenging ethical issues dealing with such topics that concern each decade, and the public reception and influences of the most canonical and controversial American juvenile delinquency movies from Rebel with a Cause to Kids. In it I argue that filmmakers such as Clark opened a window onto previously hidden aspects of American teen subculture by employing methods of participant observation, thereby bringing an authentic voice to secret lives at the edge of moral decay.
About the presenterHyewon Yi
Hyewon Yi, Ph.D., is a full time lecturer in the Visual Arts Department at SUNY College at Old Westbury, where she also serves as Director of the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery. Since 2006, she has curated exhibitions there showcasing both emerging and mid-career contemporary U.S. and international artists who work in a wide range of media, and serving students of the Visual Arts Department as well as the larger student body of the university and the greater New York City region. As an independent curator, she has mounted exhibitions at various institutions in New York and Seoul. Since 2007, Yi has also served as a curator and consultant for the AHL Foundation, a not-for-profit organization in New York that supports the careers of new talent in contemporary art. Her curatorial work has been reviewed in New York Times, Sculpture Magazine, Art in America, Brooklyn Rail, Newsday, Times Ledger among many others.
Her chief research interests lie in contemporary art, the history of photography, and curatorial practices. Yi’s doctoral dissertation, “Photographer as Participant Observer: Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Richard Billingham, and Nobuyoshi Araki” analyzes four major living proponents of the “quasi” or “gonzo”- documentary photographic and filmic method. It examines the shift toward a subjectivized or autobiographical photography, which can be seen as a trans-cultural and trans-national phenomenon. Born in Seoul, Korea, Yi holds a B.F.A. from Duk Sung Women’s University in Seoul (graduated with highest honor), an M.A. in Art History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in Art History from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is a recipient of a Study Abroad Scholarship from her Korean alma mater and a dissertation fellowship from the Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY.