2008 Woodie Awards
Movie review: Streetwise
Jason Keener
Issue date: 3/17/06 Section: Reviews
- Page 1 of 1
"We're not trying to scare you. We're just telling you the truth."
So says one prostitute to another. Two of them are trying to convince another that she's tempting fate by not having a pimp.
She explains to her worried friends that she's confused and doesn't know what she wants. No wonder. She's 14.
The quote could have just as easily come from the filmmakers.
"Streetwise" began as a Life magazine article on teenage street-life written by Cheryl McCall and photographed by Mary Ellen Mark. Martin Bell then directed a documentary inspired by the article.
The article and the film are about runaway kids living as prostitutes, junkies, "dump divers" and con men in Seattle. What's most disturbing is that most of them have chosen this life over living with parents, who we infer are physically, sexually and emotionally abusive.
Erin, a young prostitute, does still live with her mother, a waitress. She has already contracted three different STDs. Her mother knows what she does, but calmly explains that it's just a phase she's going through. She feels there's no point in trying to stop her because she'll do it anyway.
And she's making more money than her mother.
Another teen, Rat, has the equivalent of a father in a dump-diver he shares an abandoned hotel room with.
They frequent "regs" for food. A "reg," Rat explains, is a dumpster you visit regularly and become familiar with so you don't eat food that's too old.
Another of Rat's techniques is to call a local pizza joint. When no one comes to pick up the pizza he's ordered, it goes in the dumpster. It then becomes free pizza.
There is no central character. Some kids are given more camera time than others, but the film cuts to another so quickly we have empathy for the entire group as a whole and not just an individual. It's a technique that works.
This film has little necessity for chronological order. With the exception of a handful of key events, most scenes could be scrambled in any order and achieve the same effect.
One of the children examined, Dewayne, inspired Bell to make a feature film; 1992's "American Heart" starring Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong.
Significant changes were made in adapting the fact into fiction, and each was for the worst.
It's a shame, then, that Bell has sunk into obscurity. Had he followed "Streetwise" up with an equally clever and engaging documentary, he could have been among Errol Morris ("Gates of Heaven," "The Fog of War") as one of the format's leading visionaries.
Few documentaries seem to survive the test of time. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of memory. "Nanook of the North," "Roger & Me," and "Hoop Dreams" are the few that come immediately to mind.
"Streetwise," which has yet to receive a DVD release, now sits in the VHS documentary section of your local video store. Like the youth it observes, it may never receive the love it deserves.
So says one prostitute to another. Two of them are trying to convince another that she's tempting fate by not having a pimp.
She explains to her worried friends that she's confused and doesn't know what she wants. No wonder. She's 14.
The quote could have just as easily come from the filmmakers.
"Streetwise" began as a Life magazine article on teenage street-life written by Cheryl McCall and photographed by Mary Ellen Mark. Martin Bell then directed a documentary inspired by the article.
The article and the film are about runaway kids living as prostitutes, junkies, "dump divers" and con men in Seattle. What's most disturbing is that most of them have chosen this life over living with parents, who we infer are physically, sexually and emotionally abusive.
Erin, a young prostitute, does still live with her mother, a waitress. She has already contracted three different STDs. Her mother knows what she does, but calmly explains that it's just a phase she's going through. She feels there's no point in trying to stop her because she'll do it anyway.
And she's making more money than her mother.
Another teen, Rat, has the equivalent of a father in a dump-diver he shares an abandoned hotel room with.
They frequent "regs" for food. A "reg," Rat explains, is a dumpster you visit regularly and become familiar with so you don't eat food that's too old.
Another of Rat's techniques is to call a local pizza joint. When no one comes to pick up the pizza he's ordered, it goes in the dumpster. It then becomes free pizza.
There is no central character. Some kids are given more camera time than others, but the film cuts to another so quickly we have empathy for the entire group as a whole and not just an individual. It's a technique that works.
This film has little necessity for chronological order. With the exception of a handful of key events, most scenes could be scrambled in any order and achieve the same effect.
One of the children examined, Dewayne, inspired Bell to make a feature film; 1992's "American Heart" starring Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong.
Significant changes were made in adapting the fact into fiction, and each was for the worst.
It's a shame, then, that Bell has sunk into obscurity. Had he followed "Streetwise" up with an equally clever and engaging documentary, he could have been among Errol Morris ("Gates of Heaven," "The Fog of War") as one of the format's leading visionaries.
Few documentaries seem to survive the test of time. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of memory. "Nanook of the North," "Roger & Me," and "Hoop Dreams" are the few that come immediately to mind.
"Streetwise," which has yet to receive a DVD release, now sits in the VHS documentary section of your local video store. Like the youth it observes, it may never receive the love it deserves.