Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.
Streetwise is a landmark documentary that captured something genuinely unprecedented — the raw, unfiltered daily lives of homeless Seattle teenagers with an intimacy rarely achieved on film. Mary Ellen Mark's photographic eye translated into cinematography that feels both journalistic and deeply humanistic, earning its reputation as one of the great documentary works of the 1980s. The 'acting' (the subjects' unguarded presence on camera) is extraordinary, with figures like Tiny and Rat becoming unforgettable screen presences. Its novelty is high — the access, the tone, and the ethical immediacy were singular for their time. The narrative structure, however, is episodic rather than dramatically constructed, and the ending, while emotionally resonant, lacks a formal resolution that would elevate it further.