The filmmakers spending months with runaway teens on the streets of Seattle, to gain their trust and allow them to be filmed.
There is something oddly 'stagy' about some of the behavior. The kids are clearly aware of the camera. Yet, as one writer pointed out, that's also part of the power of the film, since adolescence has so much posturing and acting out anyway.
The film tries to stay un-judgemental and avoids commentating in obvious ways, sometimes at the expense of seeming disconnected or uncomfortable voyeuristic.
Yet there are moments of tremendous power here, both in seeing these kids cling to what bits of joy they can find, and to each other, and in seeing the grim realities of both their street and home lives, in hard-to-believe detail. A variable film, but a special, important one.
There is something oddly 'stagy' about some of the behavior. The kids are clearly aware of the camera. Yet, as one writer pointed out, that's also part of the power of the film, since adolescence has so much posturing and acting out anyway.
The film tries to stay un-judgemental and avoids commentating in obvious ways, sometimes at the expense of seeming disconnected or uncomfortable voyeuristic.
Yet there are moments of tremendous power here, both in seeing these kids cling to what bits of joy they can find, and to each other, and in seeing the grim realities of both their street and home lives, in hard-to-believe detail. A variable film, but a special, important one.