Proposes that in addition to entertaining, film offers up subject positions; mobilizes desires; influences its audience unconsciously; and helps construct the landscape of American culture. Notes that film can provide a pedagogical tool for offering students alternative views of the world. Concludes that as a form of public pedagogy, film combines…

Demonstrates the theoretical relevance of developing critical pedagogical practices in which issues of representation and democratic transformation mutually inform each other. Engages a popular Hollywood film, "Baby Boy," in order to demonstrate how this film might be used as both a social transcript and a form of public pedagogy. (SG)

The sexually charged "Kids" was one of the most controversial films about teenage sexuality and youth of 1995. The pessimism and one-dimensionality of the film foster a conservative pedagogy and politics that fail to break dominant discourse about subordinate youth in this country. (SLD)