12 O'Clock Boys

Lotfy Nathan's 2013 documentary is about a dirt-bike group that gathers on the streets of Baltimore. They take their name from lifting the front wheel until the bike stands as upright as twelve o'clock. Because the police are restricted in pursuing them, the group occupies the city's traffic on its own terms. At the centre is a thirteen-year-old boy named Pug. He wants to join, and the documentary follows him for three years. In that time he loses his older brother, drifts from school, and the bike scene becomes the only stable structure he has. Nathan neither declares the group criminal nor romanticises it. The risk of crashes, the tension with law enforcement and the economic condition of the neighbourhood are all in the account. The cinematography uses slow motion in the riding sequences, the film's most debated aesthetic choice. Who it's for: those who like documentaries about urban subcultures. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a neutral police perspective; the documentary looks openly from the young riders' side.