Streetwise

Dec 7, 1984

1h 31m

★ 7.5

The streets - your only chance for life.

Overview

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.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Bear Creek

Angelika Films

Streetwise Trailers

Cast

Self

Erin Blackwell

Self

Dewayne Pomeroy

Self

Roberta Joseph Hayes

Self

Lulu Couch

Self

Reed Early

Self

Patrice Pitts

Self

Rat

Homelessness in the United States takes many forms. For Elizabeth Herrera, David Lima and their four children, housing instability has meant moving between unsafe apartments, motels, relatives’ couches, shelters, the streets and their car. After 15 years of this uncertainty, the family moved into their first stable housing — an apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area — in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

6.0

The Salt Mines

Oct 1, 1990

Explores the lives of Sara, Gigi and Giovanna, three Latino transvestites who for years have lived on the streets of Manhattan supporting their drug addictions through prostitution. They made their temporary home inside broken garbage trucks that the Sanitation Department keeps next to the salt deposits used in the winter to melt the snow. The three friends share the place known as "The Salt Mines".

0.0

Sonar Rock City: Seattle

Sep 9, 2019

Sonar Rock City: Seattle is a journey through the city that caught our attention back in 1992 thanks to the grunge movement which today no longer exists. Still today the creative spirit runs through its veins with a new music scene that captures what Seattle is in its core.

6.7

Be Water

Jan 25, 2020

In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival footage, interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.

7.3

Bus 174

Oct 22, 2002

Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all Brazilian TV networks, this shocking and tragic-ending event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the scariest examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

6.7

How to Rob a Bank

Jun 4, 2024

In this true-crime documentary, a charismatic rebel in 1990s Seattle pulls off an unprecedented string of bank robberies straight out of the movies.

7.3

49 Up

Oct 6, 2006

49 Up is the seventh film in a series of landmark documentaries that began 42 years ago when UK-based Granada's World in Action team, inspired by the Jesuit maxim "Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man," interviewed a diverse group of seven-year-old children from all over England, asking them about their lives and their dreams for the future. Michael Apted, a researcher for the original film, has returned to interview the "children" every seven years since, at ages 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and now again at age 49.In this latest chapter, more life-changing decisions are revealed, more shocking announcements made and more of the original group take part than ever before, speaking out on a variety of subjects including love, marriage, career, class and prejudice.

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0.0

Teen Exorcists

Sep 12, 2013

They are young, all-American girls who enjoy horse riding, karate and Sherlock Holmes. But there's more to Brynne, Tess and Savannah than wholesome pursuits - they're exorcists. The girls believe much of the world's population is possessed by evil spirits which are causing addiction, depression and suffering. In a fight against the devil's army, they have been touring America performing public exorcisms on their believers. Now they are taking the fight to a city they think of as one of the most spiritually corrupt in the world - London. But what will Brits make of these evangelical American exorcists?

7.2

Grunge: A Story of Music and Rage

Nov 15, 2021

An extension of punk and the fury of the 70s, Grunge was built on the impossibility of living in this world without transforming it. On a categorical refusal to collaborate and the need to create your own rules. The subculture as a refuge. Grunge was a secret movement, a piracy that should never have become popular. A bubble whose epilogue was played out in 3 years, between 1991 and 1994. What happened to this rage?

6.4

Lead Me Home

Sep 3, 2021

Poignant stories of homelessness on the West Coast of the US frame this cinematic portrait of a surging humanitarian crisis.

7.1

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Oct 9, 2003

A homeless musician finds meaning in his life when he starts a friendship with dozens of parrots.

0.0

Petit Rempart

Apr 5, 2025

Mariem, 53, a former estate agent, has been living at a shelter for several months. Surrounded by women in far more precarious circumstances than herself, she tries to regard her unprecedented social downfall as an immersion in real life. By the time she leaves, Mariem’s view of the world will have changed forever, enriched by all the women she has met along the way.

0.0

Baggages

Dec 8, 2017

This documentary focuses on immigrant teens between the ages of 12 and 17 who share the story of their migration and their adaption to life in Canada through theatre. Young but wise, these children describe their experiences with emotion and authenticity.

0.0

Matter of Time

Jun 12, 2025

Eddie Vedder's soul-stirring Seattle benefit concert fuels this documentary about the race to cure the rare genetic disorder epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

No Image Available

6.2

Home

Dec 17, 2017

The film presents the life and work of two sisters Grażyna and Violetta, who run a center for homeless men. The heart and unconventional approach to their children makes them build a real home together.

0.0

Casual Ties: Casualties

Jan 1, 1972

The experiences of a young girl help to focus attention on some psycho-social aspects of the venereal disease problem. Written and directed by Rolf Forsberg (maker of Parable, Stalked, Ark, One Friday).

0.0

Ultraviolet

Dec 13, 2019

In Vancouver, British Columbia, two teenagers attempt to create a feature length documentary about their lives. The main character James (played by himself) becomes obsessed with the project and is pushed into a more introverted, lonely existence. His best friend Quinn (played by himself) sets out to help him, but is met with the real answer as to why James is keeping himself inside: the rejection of what he thinks is the love of his life. The two of them go their separate ways, with James going deeper into a depression he’s not sure he can escape from.

Streetwise

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Streetwise Trailers