Streetwise

Seattle, the early eighties. The documentary follows a group of children living in the city centre. All are between fourteen and seventeen and none of them lives at home. They get by begging, stealing, taking food from bins and selling sex. Among themselves they have built an order: who sleeps where, who looks after whom, which building is empty. At the centre is Tiny; she is fourteen and her relationship with her mother is the hardest part of the film. Martin Bell directs. The documentary dates from 1984. Its starting point was a magazine article; the photographer Mary Ellen Mark had photographed these children and the documentary grew out of that work. The method is observational; the crew does not intervene, does not explain and uses no narration. It was nominated for best documentary at the Oscars. Its hardest side is the absence of adults; social services appear and change nothing. The film builds the children as neither victims nor criminals; the narrative passes no judgement, and that choice was argued over. Years later the same team made a follow-up documentary about Tiny's adult life. Who it is for: people who watch observational documentary and social subjects. Who it is not for: the subject is very heavy, the images uncomfortable, and the narrative offers no solution.