Modern Games & Lost Feelings - Childs Play

Child Play (I Am Child) is a short documentary exploring childhood as a foundational space for learning, where play functions as language, memory, and a tool for awakening. Shot across Mali, Togo, and Burkina Faso

The film examines the profound impact of games on children’s understanding of their environment and social relationships. Play is as a vital language through which children navigate their worlds, construct memory, and engage with others. The documentary juxtaposes intimate closeups with wide observational shots, capturing the textures of daily life, dusty streets, clay houses, schoolyards, and open fields to convey immediacy and presence.

Through gestures, laughter, and small rituals, the film illuminates how play embodies curiosity, creativity, resilience, and the instinctive desire to connect. While highlighting the cultural diversity of childhood experiences in West Africa, Child Play also resonates with universal truths, revealing childhood as a dynamic, formative, and profoundly human stage of life. The film functions as both a celebration and an inquiry: a reflective observation inviting viewers to witness childhood as a space of learning, imagination, and social development