Criterion Month Day 14: Streetwise

Streetwise (1984)

The first time I read about Martin Bell’s 1984 film Streetwise was in the December 2009 issue of Seattle Metropolitan Magazine. The issue was dedicated to “75 Years of Seattle Movies,” and no film in that issue piqued my interest like Streetwisee. A gritty documentary about teens living on the streets of my city? But Seattle’s not a dangerous, hardened, urban jungle like New York, right? Right?!?

Streetwise began life as a July 1983 article for Life magazine titled “Streets of the Lost,” written by Cheryl McCall with accompanying photographs by Mary Ellen Mark (also Martin Bell’s wife). The point was that even in a city that billed itself at the time as “America’s Most Livable City,” problems like homelessness, crime, and drug use were just as prevalent as anywhere else.

I grew up just outside of Seattle during the Starbucks-swilling tech boom of the ’90s, so I always saw Seattle as an idyllic place of opportunity. But now I know that every city has a seamy underbelly. Just because Frasier never turned tricks on Pike Street doesn’t mean other people weren’t.

Streetwise follows a collection of various teens, most from broken homes, trying to survive by any means possible. There’s Rat, who panhandles, goes dumpster diving, and lives in an abandoned hotel; DeWayne, who sells drugs, suffers from infected tonsils, and visits his dad in prison; and of course, there’s the film’s breakout subject: Erin “Tiny” Blackwell, a charming but rebellious teen who makes money from “dates” and feuds with her alcoholic mother.

The teens in the film discuss their routines, their grifts, and their dreams as they go about their lives on the streets. It’s a hard watch because many of these kids show great potential but have little to no opportunities. They either have little familial support or none at all as they strive for purpose. Reading where these kids are now isn’t any easier.

A few of the teens in Streetwise were able to better their situations, but just as many never did, which is heartbreaking considering most of these kids were around 14 years old at the time, and the film is only 40 years old. Subjects of the film have fallen to suicide, drugs, AIDS, and murder. So much pain in such a short amount of time.

The film is hard at times but also funny and even beautiful at other moments. In particular, the film’s opening scene, when Rat jumps off a bridge into the water and says, “I love to fly. It’s just, you’re alone with peace and quiet, nothing around you but clear, blue sky. No one to hassle you. No one to tell you where to go or what to do. The only bad part about flying is having to come back down to the fucking world.”

Even in desperation, there are profound moments, and Streetwise captures these moments beautifully. Seattle is a city I love, but it’s still a city with flaws and flawed people. After watching Streetwise, I’ll never forget that.