Childhood

Directed by

Danny Lyon

The prequel to Lyon’s Born to Film and Two Fathers, his two previous “family” films, this film covers the years 1942-56. Shot entirely on 8mm by Lyon’s father, Dr. Ernst F. Lyon, the remarkable footage was edited by Lyon in 2016. Beginning in 1942, the footage documents the artist’s birth and his father’s departure to Utah during WWII. The great blizzard of 1946 is shown in Queens, as is the 1950 LIRR Thanksgiving railroad crash, an event witnessed by Lyon as a child, and shown here via Fox News footage. Ends with the artist at 14, as his father films his grandfather’s 80th birthday party. “Opa” walks off with a cane, an homage to Chaplin, and ending with the only close-up in the film, a yellow rose.