TINY: THE LIFE OF ERIN BLACKWELL is Martin Bell's follow-up documentary to 1984's Streetwise & the culmination of 30+ years of work between Bell & his wife, Mary Ellen Mark. In Streetwise, we meet many characters, all street kids in Seattle--but the charismatic stand-out of the film was Erin "Tiny" Blackwell, a 14-year old runaway, who makes ends meet through prostitution. In Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, we step further into Tiny's world, from the time she met Mary Ellen Mark in 1983 for the LIFE Magazine photo essay "Streets of the Lost", to the present day as the mother of 10 struggling with a methadone addiction. Throughout the film, we meet her children, who range in age from 30 to 5. We witness not only the continuing struggles of Erin's life, but also those of her children, some of whom have encountered the same difficulties with drug addiction & the law as their mother. Although each of her kids have very different personalities, they all seem to have inherited their mother's charm, spunk & smarts. The film touches on subjects that are acutely familiar to Seattle (& many other cities)--the vicious cycles of homelessness, addiction & racism. Although we are left with no solid answers as to how to combat these problems for future generations, in the eyes of some of her youngest children we are left with a twinkle of hope for their futures.
