''I Am Eleven'' is a 2011 Australian documentary film by Genevieve Bailey and Henrik Nordstrom, who travelled through 15 countries over a period of six years to explore the lives of 11-year-olds in different environments. The countries that the children are from include

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, England, India, France, Australia, Sweden, Morocco, Japan and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. The film has been compared with the ''

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'' documentary series and won awards in the USA, Australia,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, France and Spain. The film premiered at the 2011

Melbourne International Film Festival The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is an annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1952 and is one of the oldest film festivals in the world following the founding of the Venic ...

Background

Following the completion of a Bachelor of Creative Arts Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts at

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

in 2003, Bailey completed a series of

short films A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

s and a video installation, while also tutoring at Melbourne University and

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

. As of 2017, Bailey had made over 40 films, many of which are collaborations with fellow Australian filmmaker Jarrah Gurrie, many of which have screened internationally and won over 30 awards.

Production

At the time that the film was conceived, Bailey was in a difficult period of her life and was creatively inspired by a particularly memorable time during her childhood years:

I was going through a difficult time, being in a serious car accident and my body was not feeling very happy, and my dad passed away. I wanted to make something quite simply that would make me happy and make audiences happy … I thought back to my favourite age in life and that was when I was eleven and I thought I wondered what would it be like to be eleven today.

Bailey explained in 2014 that she commenced shooting the film without any funding: “I’d run out of money, come back and work two or three jobs to save up the money for another ticket. I was doing that every year ... It was like having an addiction.” Nearing the completion of the production, Bailey turned down funding that was offered by a Victoria, Australia organisation, as she was not comfortable with handing over the ownership of the film to the funding body: "We (Henrik Nordstrom and I) weren’t very comfortable with that given the amount of time, energy and money we’d invested."

Participants

The eleven-year-olds were: *Jitter - India *Goh - Thailand *Siham - Morocco *Giorgio - Bulgaria *Jack - Thailand *Remi - France *Billy - England *Obey - England *Oliver - USA *Jamira - Australia *Remya - India *Rika - Japan *Vandana - India *Priya - India *Dagan - USA *Sree Kuti - India *Sam - The Netherlands *Sahin - Sweden *Ginisha - India *Luca - Germany *Fang - China *Osama - Sweden *Kim - USA *Grace - Czechia *Sharif - England

Release

The global premiere of ''I Am Eleven'' occurred at the 2011

(MIFF), where the film also received the People's Choice Award. Following its official release in July 2012, the documentary was screened at 22 cinemas around Australia from 2012 to 2013, and played for a record-breaking 26 weeks at

Cinema Nova Lygon Street is located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, running through the inner northern suburbs of Carlton, Carlton North, Princes Hill and Brunswick East. Lygon Street is synonymous with the Italian community of Melbourne, form ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. The film was featured as part of the 2014 Portland Children's Film Festival that was held in early April in the American city of

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

. Following a very successful theatrical run in Australia, Proud Mother Pictures independently launched the film in US cinemas in September 2014. The "On Demand" rights for the film was acquired by the Gathr Films company in early June 2014. Gathr were due to commence distributing the film through its "Theatrical On Demand" platform in August 2014.

Critical reception

Following a screening in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Australia, Alexander Dermer wrote in a review for the ''Weekend Notes'': "Some of what the kids say can be immensely thought provoking and at other times downright hilarious, however ''I Am Eleven'' thoroughly manages to keep you entertained either way. This film achieves what it sets out to do and more." Dermer also identified what he perceived as "odd moments of slow pacing and sidestepped direction", but concludes that the film is a "must see for everyone". Writing for ''Meld'', a publication for international students that is based in Melbourne, Australia, Hieu Chau stated in an April 2013 review: "It offers up an engaging look at how children of different cultural backgrounds grow up in the world that they inhabit today ... it’s a stunning and successful effort for the documentary, especially when one considers that it had very little funding and no distributor." The documentary was identified as a ''New York Times'' "Critics' Pic" in Neil Genzlinger's September 2014 review, in which he explains: "The project could easily have seemed like a smarmy Nickelodeon special or some variant of ''Kids Say the Darndest Things'', but Ms. Bailey’s willingness to let the children talk and to let the viewer impose broader meaning elevates it."

Awards

*Outstanding Documentary Award at the

Newport Beach Film Festival The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival had permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival bega ...

, USA *Audience Award at the

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival (), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South Ame ...

, Brazil *People's Choice Award at

, Australia *Best Documentary of the Year at the

IF Awards The IF Awards, formerly known as the Inside Film Awards, Lexus Inside Film Awards, Kodak IF Awards, and Jameson IF Awards, was an annual awards ceremony and broadcast platform for the Australian film industry. Its name derives from its origins at ...

, Australia *Audience Award at the European Independent Film Festival, France *Best Documentary of The Year Nominee by the

Film Critics Circle of Australia The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) is an association of cinema critics and reviewers. It includes journalists in "media, television, major national and state papers, radio, national and state, online and freelance writers, Australian ...

*Independent Spirit Award at the IF Awards, Australia *Best Documentary nominee at the Seminci Valladolid Film Festival, Spain

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.iameleven.com 2011 films Documentary films about children 2010s English-language films English-language documentary films