Five years later,his documentary about a group of teenagers whose lives changed dramatically when they appeared in the controversial 1995 American filmKids will screen in competition at the upcoming Sydney Film Festival.The Kids is a cautionary tale about the crushing power of the movie industry for those who are unprepared.
“A group of street kids – kids from really dysfunctional backgrounds in a highly traumatised city at that time – formed this functioning little family unit for themselves to survive”:director Eddie Martin about The Kids.Umbrella
Martin,who won an AACTA Award for the 2014 documentaryAll This Mayhem,was a young skateboarder himself when he watchedKids. While he recognised it was a significant movie,he found it nowhere near as “authentic and shocking” as others thought it was.
Written by 19-year-old Harmony Korine,director Larry Clark’s dark drama follows a group of teens for 24 hours as they travel around New York skating,drinking,smoking dope and “deflowering virgins”.
It was widely praised as troublingly real –The New York Times called it a portrait of a “spiritually dead teenage culture built on aimlessness,casual cruelty and empty pleasure” – but there was also dismay about its confronting scenes of unprotected sex and HIV infection.
With a cast of unknowns aged 14 to 18,Kids had a documentary shooting style that blurred the border between real life and fiction.
While cast members Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson have gone on to successful acting careers,Clark made another controversial skateboarders drama inKen Park,Korine directedSpring Breakers andThe Beach Bum andKids is now considered an art house classic,fellow actors Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter died tragically young and others struggled.
Martin was drawn to make the documentary by the passion of anotherKids actor,Hamilton Harris,to honour his late friends. They had struggled to find work and were hurt that Clark had profited from their involvement in the film.
Reclaiming the narrative:Eddie Martin.Supplied
“He felt that this handful of successful people have really owned the narrative around the film for a long time,” Martin says during a break from editing the bushfire documentaryThe Front in Port Melbourne. “He wanted to reclaim the narrative and give their side of the story.”
While those who found success rejected offers to appear inThe Kids,Martin believes the documentary did not need them.
“In our story,a group of street kids – kids from really dysfunctional backgrounds in a highly traumatised city at that time – formed this functioning little family unit for themselves to survive,” he says. “Then these outsiders penetrated their world and they created this film and it just set a bomb off and altered all their lives forever.”
As well as showing the damage caused byKids,Martin says there is an inspirational side to his documentary.
The Kids.Umbrella
“Some of the characters were able to push through these incredibly tricky upbringings and break the cycles of domestic violence and drug abuse and have kids of their own,” he says. “As functioning members of society,they’ve succeeded.”
After a world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York,The Kids has been selected for the $10,000 documentary competition at Sydney Film Festival that is due to run – pending the lockdown – from November 3 to 14.
Chief executive Leigh Small is hoping the already-delayed festival can take place in cinemas rather than go virtual for the second year in a row. While the first batch of films has been announced,the full program will not be unveiled until after the lockdown.
The documentary competition also includes Tosca Looby’sStrong Female Lead,which is described as “a shocking expose of the media,public and political treatment” of former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Other contenders are director Allan Clarke’sThe Bowraville Murders,about the killing of three Aboriginal children in a NSW town;Ben Lawrence’sIthaka,which looks at John Shipton’s campaign to save son Julian Assange;Sascha Ettinger Epstein’sThe Department,on the NSW child protection system;and Dean Gibson’sIncarceration Nation,which looks at systemic racism in the justice system.
Find out the next TV,streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees..
Email the writer at gmaddox@smh.com.au and follow him on Twitter at