We Were Once Kids

Eddie Martin's 2021 documentary is about young people skateboarding on the streets of New York in the early nineties. The same group later appeared in a film that drew international attention; the documentary tells what happened after it. The argument is that the young people got nothing back. The producers and the director built careers; most of those who came off the street stayed in the same conditions and several died young. The narrative gives this name by name. The survivors speak and correct their own accounts; some describe openly for the first time how they were treated at the time. The documentary does not disparage the original film but leaves no doubt about the question of exploitation. Who it's for: those who follow skate culture and criticism of the film industry. Who it's not for: viewers for whom accounts of drugs, death and abuse would sit heavily.