In recent years, the popularity of documentaries has exploded, thanks to streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Now, more than ever before, it’s easier to not only make a documentary but also find a platform that will bring it to a worldwide audience. But back in the early-’80s, it was a different world. And nothing can show how different the world was back then better than the acclaimed documentary “Streetwise.”
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In honor of a brand-new restoration of the 1984 film, “Streetwise,” coming to Metrograph later this month, we’re thrilled to give our readers an exclusive look at the new trailer and poster for the film, as well as a new poster for the follow-up “Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell.”
Filmed in 1983, “Streetwise” follows the story of a group of homeless and runaway teens living in Seattle. As you might expect, the documentary presents the true look at what many were going through during that era, and still go through to this day. Filmmaker Martin Bell teamed with photographer Mary Ellen Mark and journalist Cheryl McCall to follow the group of at-risk children as they face hardships like love, poverty, drugs, and everything else a teen might go through living on the streets.
“Streetwise” was nominated for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards that year and due to its popularity and acclaim, Martin Bell went back to work decades later to catch up with one of the subjects of that landmark feature. “Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell” continues the story of one of the “Streetwise” subjects, now a 44-year-old mother of 10 kids, reflects on her life. It’s yet another hard-hitting look at the effects of life on the street as a young woman grows into an adult.
“Streetwise” and ‘Tiny’ will arrive at Metrograph on July 19.
Here’s the exclusive poster, trailer, as well as the synopsis for “Streetwise”:
Seattle, 1983. Taking their camera to the streets of what was supposedly America’s most livable city, filmmaker Martin Bell, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and journalist Cheryl McCall set out to tell the stories of those society had left behind: homeless and runaway teenagers living on the city’s margins. Born from a Life magazine exposé by Mark and McCall, the Academy Award-nominated Streetwise follows an unforgettable group of at-risk children—including iron-willed fourteen-year-old Tiny, who would become the project’s most haunting and enduring face, along with the pugnacious yet resourceful Rat and the affable drifter DeWayne—who, driven from their broken homes, survive by hustling, panhandling, and dumpster diving. Granted remarkable access to their world, the filmmakers craft a devastatingly frank, nonjudgmental portrait of lost youth growing up far too soon in a world that has failed them.
You can watch the trailer for “Tiny,” as well as a look at the exclusive poster and synopsis below:
Thirty years in the making, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell continues to follow one of the most indelible subjects of Streetwise, a groundbreaking documentary on homeless and runaway teenagers. Erin Blackwell, a.k.a. Tiny, was introduced in filmmaker Martin Bell, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and journalist Cheryl McCall’s earlier film as a brash fourteen-year-old living precariously on the margins in Seattle. Now a forty-four year-old mother of ten, Blackwell reflects with Mark on the journey they’ve experienced together, from Blackwell’s struggles with addiction to her regrets to her dreams for her own children, even as she sees them being pulled down the same path of drugs and desperation. Interweaving three decades’ worth of Mark’s photographs and footage that includes previously unseen outtakes from Streetwise, this is a heartrending, deeply empathetic portrait of a family struggling to break free of the cycle of trauma, as well as a summation of the life’s work of Mark, an irreplaceable artistic voice.