Purple Television
[October 9 2015] : love
Streetwise by Martin Bell
As part of his solo show at the Julia Stoschek collection in Düsseldorf, from October 2015 through February 2016 artist Cyprien Gaillard will be curating a selection of films for the STUDIO54 program, screening every second Wednesday in the month at the Julia Stoschek collection movie theater. For his first film, Gaillard selected Streewise, the 1984 film by Martn Bell, which portrays the lives of nine street children in Seattle in the 1980s.
In view of the dire circumstances in which the children are living it is hard to imagine just how dreadful their previous existences must have been for them to prefer this kind of life on the fringes of society. This Oscar-nominated documentary is based on a reportage for LIFE magazine in which the wife of the director, Mary Ellen Mark, was involved. Despite it being unspeakably sad to see how society treats these street children the film is sensitive and sometimes even encouraging, allowing the scenes to speak for themselves without the need for very much intervention. Click here from more info on the programming.
