For the life of a runaway child in 1983 Seattle, it was tough. The kids ruggedly scrambled for their next meal and they did so with intellect. They were street smart. In the film Streetwise, filmmaker Martin Bell inspires to recreate the 1983 Life Magazine article "Street of the Lost," in documentary form. The original article beautifully grasps the struggle and vulnerability of street kids in Seattle but it also captures the childish nature these kids still embody. Bell tactfully captures moments of weakness in these lost children, but he also manages to catch them in moments of care-free living, just as any kid should experience. Bell's goal is not to just capture the reality these kids live in, but to develop an artistic portrait of their multi-faceted adolescence. Bell focuses most of his attention on two kids. Tiny is a complex character. Molested by her step-father at young age and her mother only seeing her current lack of abuse as reason to continue her relationship with the step-father, viewers mildly begin to understand why Tiny has turned to be a 14-year-old prostitute. Rat is a 17-year-old runaway whom spends his nights in an abandoned hotel, salvages for any food he can touch, and works daily shifts begging for money. Bell sees how these tough yet still vulnerable kids encapsulate the majority of kids taking their time to the streets. Though Bell captures the sad circumstances of the two, he dedicates time filming the young childish crushing the two have for each other. Bell sees the importance of sharing the two-dimensional street kid lifestyle; as grinding street dwelling scrappers and as adventurous, imaginative children. Martin Bell, hands over storytelling control to the children by using voice-overs from separately recorded interviews. The voice of the kids (often describing daily routines) are layered over footage of the kids taking on these daily routines. Viewers then receive a full understanding of the action. In one scene Rat describes dumpster diving. He tells the audience that people often question the safety of eating potentially decaying food. But as Rat explains, he always knows what food is safe because he scavenges one dumpster (or as he calls his "reg"). As the voice-over is played, Bell artistically delivers footage of Rat and his friend Jack rummaging through the dumpster, selecting their next meal. This technique of layering voice-over and footage makes it easy for the viewer to understand how these kids survive on a daily basis. Martin Bell, along with his ability to match visuals and sound, has an alluring ability to alter the distance between the audience's connection with the most intimate factors in these kids lives. Late in the film Rat goes to visit Tiny after she has been arrested. Rat has intentions of leaving the city but Tiny is trying to convince him to wait for her to get out of holding. It is an emotional scene where Bell shifts back and forth between close-ups of Tiny and Rat. Bell highlights the child-like romance these two have through close-ups of their facial expressions, amplifying the emotion. The scene then cuts to a long shot Rat looking outward to a passing boat. Rat wants to get out of Seattle. He looks back abruptly before the scene cuts again to him hopping on a passing train. Does this mean Rat is trapped in Seattle as he is too young to find the way out of the city? Could it be that the train only takes him through the city, not out of it? Martin Bell seemingly uses a variety of camera shots to give us a microscopic look into their emotions and also their environmental standing which keeps them in touch with these emotions. Streetwise is a brilliantly directed film that has plenty of nuances to make it a distinct documentary. It is not often that a filmmaker will let the subject do all the talking, but because the kids get so much attention we are constantly reminded of their conditions. With the help of some grade A filmmaking the stories become far too real, and so beautifully powerful.

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.

when approaching a movie such as streetwise we should consider several objectives that might make it more reasonable to take in the info shown on screen. first of all we cant make an accurate judgment of a piece made 20 years and more ago using todays perspective.its a different political climate, cinematography has evolved and new phrases are constantly introduced into its on going changing semiology, and though most people understand whats going on using their own morals, for the kids in the movie its their own 15 minutes of fame regardless of universal notions. second of all everything on screen is somewhat fabricated to fit into the audience's eye. whats portrayed on screen has one source and a thousand interpretations. even if this movie is more fake than real, there has to be an agenda for making it. this movie didn't sprout out of nothing or nowhere. it depicts real life. yes them British folks making the movie used neck microphones, and there were voice-overs. questions if whether they mashed up reality in order to make a quick buck, or get recognition in the field of documentaries, or even as a service for social services. one of the options has probably a firm grasp into the truth. the outcome matters. if the movie made an impact, and you understood that people live like that, regardless to whether they were spotted in your own neighborhood, than the fabrication aspect was necessary. and thats all she wrote

...but all in all it is a fairly accurate portrayal of life on the Seattle streets at that time. Back then there were hundreds of kids living on the streets and the film mainly follows the most visible (The ones who were ALWAYS on first and pike). I was involved as a periphery player in that scene from 1978 until about 1984 when MDA and cocaine flooded the Seattle streets and destroyed what was left of the downtown runaway youth culture that flourished there. Most of my friends from that era are either dead, in prison or god only knows where. Several died of cocaine overdoses or aids. It was a sad, despairing chapter of my life but there were many, many good kids on those streets. It would be interesting to find out what happened to a lot of those people.