We Were Once Kids

The movie kids, tho great in many ways, is an emotionless affair. Literally characters who find out they have aids don't cry, they just kinda panic. Nobody seems to, or is depicted to, feel anything in that world.

We Were Once Kids is like the photo negative of that. It's emotionally raw, very vulnerable, pathetic even, embarrassing. And I mean all that as a compliment. Here we see young men grappling honestly with regrets, unrealized dreams, friendships, and new realities, they aren't too cool to walk us through the process of finding adult perspectives on hard childhoods, lost childhoods, opportunities - particularly one stinging reveal that was and is forever lost. Even cast wise: the side characters are the stars, the stars mostly absent.

It's a great depiction of the chance to be in the moons orbit and never getting to land there. The filmmakers are in tremendous company.

I would like to know why Chloë Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, and Leo Fitzpatrick were given hall passes on their culpability in the demise and deaths of Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter?

Not only did Chloë, Rosario and Leo (the only actors/stars to emerge successful out of Kids) duck out of being interviewed for this doc, but their names are not even mentioned once. And I mean literally NO mention of them AT ALL, as if they never appeared in Kids.

Instead, the producers and director chose to focus their ire and blame strictly on Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, holding the duo over the fire for abandoning their "kids" so that they could reap all the accolades and financial fruits for themselves. And in doing so - this documentary argues - Pierce and Hunter were left all alone to flounder and eventually fail (Justin later killed himself and Harold OD'd).

I don't think anyone disagrees that Clark and Korine exploited their cast of then-unknown street urchins in order to get Kids made. And after watching this doc, you'd be hard pressed to defend (or even like) Larry Clark (Korine was equally heartless in his unscrupulous treatment of the Kids cast, but unlike Clark he's still making $$$ for Hollywood, so I think people are a bit more lenient of him as Clark's former accomplice).

But it seems grossly unfair of this doc's filmmakers to have such a blatant double-standard of blame - that Clark and Korine could have but didn't help Justin and Harold get set up in Hollywood following the success of kids - all the while categorically ignoring just how huge Chloë Sevigny and Rosario Dawson went on to become in La La Land.

Seriously, where were Chloë and Rosario when Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter were also trying to get roles? And where were they when Justin and Harold, having failed to make it in show business, fell on hard times? Sure, you could argue that Chloë and Rosario had no responsibility for them and were just looking out for themselves as they became popular in Hollywood (both actresses are now A-listers and multi-millionaires).

But then you'd need to grant Clark and Korine the exact same exemption, because they too had no obligation to help out the cast after paying them. After all, at the time Clark and Korine were just two scruffy wannabe filmmakers trying to make it in this industry. Not until years (and decades for Korine) later did they finally find some success.

In fact, if you examine and compare their respective career timelines, Chloë and Rosario were cast in big-budget Hollywood movies immediately after Kids - long before Clark or Korine found enough financing to make their second films. So who at the time really had the ability and opportunity to help out Harold and Justin?

Again I ask: why did the producers and director of "The Kids" (aka "We Were Once Kids") choose to let Chloë Sevigny, Rosario Dawson and Leo Fitzpatrick off the hook by not forcing them to face the camera and ask them the same hard questions asked of Clark and Korine? And not just let them off the hook, but completely leave them out of this doc with nary a whisper of their names? (the end of the film states in writing that Clark and Korine declined to participate; since Sevigny and Dawson also declined to participate, why doesn't it say so?).

Re-watch this documentary with all this in mind and I think their agenda/narrative will make itself more obvious to the viewer: Clark and Korine were low-hanging fruit, but to also go after Sevigny and Dawson would have risked upsetting the Hollywood powers-that-be who finance their films and have the ability to crush aspiring indie filmmakers like Eddie Martin and Hamilton Harris.

I personally think it's shameful and hypocritical, but y'know, I doubt anyone else will ever think this deep about this relatively obscure documentary...

This is a good documentary that, unlike what typical bros from IMDB would say, is not for "the era of whine". It does talk about the entire cast, even those who someone says here are suspiciously silent, but this is not about the rest of the teenagers who were part of the cast. It's about those who had the power and basically used the life stories (AND IMAGES) of these kids, while filming them naked and using drugs. I have never been a fan of Harmony Korine, and now I dislike him even more. The creepy aura around Larry Clarke does not surprise me. This old dude talking with a teenager about another grown man wanting oral sex seems more like a way to bring that topic up. I do believe that Hamilton Harris, being the writer, wasn't able to objectively edit many of his conversations. The monotone can get a little bit tired.

It's not the best, but it's worth watching, especially for those who are unable to put themselves in the shoes of teenagers from "the wrong side of the tracks" (Of course, that's not the user base of this site)

So after watching KIDS I was looking up Justin Pierce Because I was fairly sure I had seen him in some other movies Anyway this documentary about the movie came up So I decided to watch it (Not that it changed my opinion of KIDS) But it did make me feel bad about what the actors went through Larry Clark is a low life scum of the earth Who took advantage of street kids with little or no education It was tragic to learn of the deaths of Justin Pierce and Harold Hunter Very informative and interesting documentary I would highly recommend watching this Strictly my opinion But I think it's better than the actual movie.

I did not know about the death of 2 of the lead characters. I have to say it is not really surprising. Coming from that background and environment, it was highly likely going to happen to some of them.

I grew up in a small town in Scotland, and many of my friends I grew up with are now dead at 45; suicide, drugs, the same old same old. Like a universal principle unfortunately. The location changes, but the stories the same. It can be easy to shift blame, but drug addiction and broken families were the largest factors I suspect in their early death. This is not to say that Hamilton is wrong. My feelings are that the movie helped some of the cast in the long run, and had unintended consequences for others. Over all though, was the effect positive or negative? Without stepping foot in an alternative reality, we will never know for sure. Changed the course of participants lives for sure.

For sure they were under paid, but at what point does Harmony and Larry's responsibility end. There were a lot of kids in that movie to adopt. Maybe its a glass half full, half empty scenario. I see them all as legends: cast and crew.

I thank the cast of Kids and all the crew members, as it was a important movie for me, and film that really made me think. Unfortunately the camera verte approach, simply could not have been replicated through paid professional cast members.

Kids was a bold movie, and many do say unethical. From my view, a part of cultural history would be missing without this movie. No one would ever know in future generations what it was like to grow up as an underprivileged kid in New York in the 90's.

Fantastic movie, fantastic follow up documentary. I'd be up for watching more if they can get hold of more cast and crew.