It's 3:AM. I can't sleep because I finished watching this old HBO docu a few hours ago called:
THE DARK END OF THE STREET (HBO)
It's maybe the grittiest of all the HBO docs that they did in the 90s and somehow haven't done for a while. I'll eventually review all of them as I like to go back and look at these - but this one was so dark I found it surprising HBO even aired it in the first place. I don't think its been on their air in over 8 years. Luckily I had a DVD that I'd recently converted to AVI so I can watch stuff off a small 320 Gig drive that I plug into my computer.
Anyway, the docu is about 2 years in the lives of Black Tar heroin users in the mid 90s. Harrowing does not begin to describe the plight of these young people searching for a vein to stick a needle in. Lots of shots of the junkies using the veins in their necks, they prostitute themselves for drug money, even after one of them learns they have AIDS. One girl in her 20s goes to jail for 7 months for dealing. She has huge plans for parenthood and becoming an adult when she gets out. Eight hours after getting out she's high again...and that's one of the more savory stories.
These things are kind of hard to take, but compelling and fascinating. Docs don't get any realer than this, and the soundtrack and editing and pure filmmaking on display here is seriously about as clear as you can get on this subject of young junkies.
This is the only place I know of on the web right now to find it, along with many other superb HBO docs. But this one is really the bomb in every way.
Grade: A +
Get it here:
http://www.bst.com/241R2X
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