Amoeba Music

In 1983, director Martin Bell, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, and journalist Cheryl McCall set out to tell the stories of homeless and runaway teenagers living on the margins in Seattle. Streetwise follows an unforgettable group of kids who survive by hustling, panhandling, and dumpster diving. Its most haunting and enduring figure is iron-willed fourteen-year-old Erin Blackwell, a.k.a. Tiny; the project's follow-up, Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, completed thirty years later, draws on the filmmakers' long relationship with their subject, now a mother of ten. Blackwell reflects with Mark on the journey they've experienced together, from Blackwell's battles with addiction to her regrets to her dreams for her children, even as she sees them repeat her own struggles. Taken together, the two films create a devastatingly frank, empathetic portrait of lost youth growing up far too soon in a world that has failed them, and of a family trying to break free of the cycle of trauma—as well as a summation of the life's work of Mark, an irreplaceable artistic voice.

Special Features:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfers of both films, supervised by director Martin Bell, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack for the Streetwise Blu-ray and 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack for the Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell
• New audio commentary on Streetwise featuring Bell
• New interview with Bell about photographer Mary Ellen Mark
• New interview with Streetwise editor Nancy Baker
• Four short films by Bell
• Trailer
• An essay by historian Andrew Hedden; journalist Cheryl McCall's 1983 Life magazine article about teenagers living on the street in Seattle; and reflections on Blackwell written by Mark in 2015