The Mask You Live In

A few sentences are said to boys in America: don't cry, be a man, don't act like a girl. The documentary asks what those sentences do. It talks to children in schools, to young men in detention, to coaches and to fathers. Figures are set out; exclusions, diagnoses of attention disorder, drug use and suicide. Alongside that it shows the definition of manhood taught through sport, games and pornography. What the narrative says in the end is simple: boys learn to hide what they feel. Jennifer Siebel Newsom directs. Academics, teachers, coaches and young men speak in it. It is an American production. The director's previous documentary took up the same question through girls and media representation. The matter it treats is the definition of manhood; the film puts it as something taught rather than innate. The documentary presents violence as a result and looks for its cause in isolation. The narrative lines up a great many expert opinions and moves through interviews. The film keeps its proposals for the end and offers school programmes as examples. The narrative rests on American data and does not transfer directly to other countries. In some passages the documentary steers the viewer with emotional music. The ending is hopeful, and that ending comes a little easily. Its limit is depth; the narrative opens many subjects, carries none of them through, and touches class only lightly. Who it is for: teachers, parents and people who follow questions of gender. Who it is not for: it is scattered, particular to one country, and the ending simple.