Sidewalk Entrepreneurs

Sidewalk Entrepreneurs offers viewers a glimpse of Mexico City's street vendors, within the ancient, modern and bustling city. The narratives presented are a moment in the life from a couple known as the Tango Terrorists, a newstand vendor featuring zines in a business district, along with a knife juggler, an Aztec shaman, soccer performers, a self made entrepreneur who is a skateboarder who saw a need in his community and provided refreshments, snacks and a tool that is useful to those riding the grit of the skatepark and upon the Mexico City streets. Along with several other entrepreneurs who are following a lifestyle that isn't a 9-5 grind.

Street and business wisdom is shared from the point of view of these passionate people featured within the film.

If you've been to Mexico City or are curious about Mexico City and its skateboarding or DIY culture this film is for you.

I enjoyed the film so much I've watched more than once.

Sidewalk Entrepreneurs offers a fresh look at life in Mexico City, where more than half of workers make their living on the streets. Featuring interviews with a wide cast of street vendors (from performance artists to DIY merchants in the skateboarding community), the film's subjects reflect the warmth, spirit and grind of the city that they live in. Elliot manages to capture raw, personal accounts of the bustling, uniquely chaotic informal economy that sustains CDMX. Really refreshing to see a positive portrayal of life in Mexico for people in the States, when so much of what we see is negative sensationalism. Highly recommend!

It's easy to overlook the people who pedal their wares in the streets. This film takes an in-depth look at those street vendors in Mexico City. It's not just about there ingenuity, passion, and the will to survive in a sprawling metropolis. It's about adapting to your surroundings and the political powers that be.

I don't know if it's a funding issue, but it seems like independent documentaries are almost singularly focused on scaring people in some way or another. Sidewalk Entrepreneurs is about people making their money on the streets of Mexico City, and so could easily have fallen into that cliche as well. It doesn't however, and instead sets course to the opposite horizon. This is a story about human beings making a living in ways that are creative, difficult, and, in some ways enviable. It isn't that there isn't danger, and there is definitely suspense, but this is a movie about decency, hard work, and ingenuity. The people in this film are the same people, sitting on street corners trying to make a living, that you might try to avoid eye contact with. It won't make you feel guilty about doing so, instead it will make you realize that you are missing an opportunity to connect with some of your more interesting brothers and sisters on the planet. I love this film, and I hope to see more from this creator.

This film looks thoughtfully at Mexico City's street vendors. Elliott is not another typical "edgy" director attempting to examine the underbelly of a society to which he doesn't belong. Rather, he lets his subjects guide the narrative, as they show that they are fascinating and positive contributors to the city's character.

The story is largely built around Mexico City's skateboarding scene. The skaters, as they tend to do in any city, offer entertaining insight into street culture.

A particular highlight is the shaman, but all vendors featured in the film are clearly at ease with Elliott as they share what it's like to be a sidewalk entrepreneur.