Serafima Serafimova
Do you still remember what a child’s sense of wonder feels like? To be able to find magic in the mundane and transform any boring old space into an arena of endless adventure? We invite you into the world of Child Runaways where for 13 wondrous minutes you can experience life through a child’s gaze once again. It’s a world where pure joy exists alongside the raw urgency of youth and where even the most difficult of circumstances somehow turns out to be ok.
Directed by Adriane McCray, Child Runaways defies its rather unremarkable plot description through its thoroughly realised characters and a tonal balance that together add up to an affectionately sympathetic portrait of a family unit on the verge of breaking down. Inspired by McCray’s childhood, this is a coming of age film that celebrates the details in all their unfiltered beauty, rather than focusing on the bigger picture or the unveiling of a universal truth. And therein lies the film’s charm and greatness. Child Runaways sneaks up on you and stays with you, like a cherished childhood memory.
“I sought to offer an experience of immersion in order to understand and live alongside black young women” – director Adriane McCray
The narrative follows sisters Cleo, Zoe and Autumn who are left alone when their parents go away for the weekend. Left in charge, the eldest spends most of her first morning of freedom complaining about her younger siblings to her friend on the phone, whilst they, in turn, get up to mischief in their parents’ bedroom. Soon however, it becomes clear that they are all keeping a family secret which could change their lives forever, unless they find a way to stop it together.
“I grew up as the middle child in a family that moved around often” director McCray shared with S/W – “When we migrated across the country, we were often the only black family in town. My sisters became my best friends by default. Our suburban neighbourhood set the stage for a fresh start, a utopia that fed my imagination. These relationships shielded me from life’s harsh realities as economic troubles, racial tension, and later, marital tension struck my family. These hardships began to break through the seams of our quilted life, I leaned into the comfort of sisterhood and our collective imagination to patch up the holes.”
“This story lends itself to unique visual exploration that offers the opportunity to compare the imaginative childlike perspective with a sterile adult” – director Adriane McCray
It’s this focus on the unremarkable that makes the film remarkable. There’s nothing particularly special about the sisters or their circumstances – the two younger ones just want to play, whereas their teenage sister is mostly concerned about fitting in. Yet the characters are never turned into wide-eyed cliches nor are they portrayed as blissfully ignorant. The secret knowledge they share about their parents and the way they rely on one another in order to deal with it makes them both special and real, an impression further reinforced by the talented young actors.
The three performances by Ariel Trent, Evelyn Grace Williams and Jai Shannon are so genuine that you soon forget that they are not in fact real sisters but actors delivering scripted lines. Their characters are so thoughtfully fleshed-out and three-dimensional that, just like Chiron from Moonlight, they convince us without a shadow of a doubt that they too live on beyond the film.
What’s even more special is the way the characters, helped by the kaleidoscopic magic of the cinematography, teleport us back to our own childhood years, where every single object and place has secret powers and unlimited potential to deliver pure joy. This is also the reason why Child Runaways is not just a special film to watch but a privilege to experience.