BULLET BOY by Alana Kristi

Bullet Boy is one of the films that portrays one of the major issues we have in the society, which is violence among the youth group. It particularly associates the stereotype of a black male youth; whereas it conveys their involvement on crimes,which was connoted by the image of guns and gangsters. However, this is just one side of the authenticity of the youth, meaning this is just showing one side of reality among the youth.

According to the wikipedia, authenticity means that is the truthfulness of origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity , devotion and intention. However, in media what it is meant to be authentic when all the depicted images is one sided point of view. And normally affected by how much appeal that it creates to the target audiences. Nowadays, most of the films shown wether british or american film especially if its indie film, is always composed of violence that is always associated with black male youth in the society that is one major ingredient of reality films. that makes this films successful, just the idea of realism.

In contrast, there are also films that are made to show both factors of violence and hope. A good example of this is Slumdog millionaire, wherein it portrays that among the slums area, there are violence happening but at the same time, an array of hope exists and opens through the choices made by the main character. This resembles the story of Bullet boy, however in a more negative perspective-violence. The similarities between this film is that both characters where pushed into situations they are in, because of how society structures them to be.

wherein social structure put in place by the powerful.

And the way the Black male youth were represented is just a proof of it.

now, the only question is that how can we say if a film is authentic or not? considering the fact that races or nationalities cannot only be defined by their culture and history but also their beliefs and traditions.