Larry Clark directed Kids in 1995. The film is about teens and kids age 18 and younger growing up in an urban city setting with little parental influence or supervision. One boy named Telly (played by Leo Fitzpatrick) makes it a goal of his to sleep with as many virgin girls as he can due to his fear of getting an STD. Unfortunately, Jennie (played by Chloe Sevigny) a 16-year-old girl, slept with Telly and no one else only to find out she has HIV, given to her by Telly. His biggest fear of gaining an STD is already a reality for him without his knowledge. In the movie you see him sleep with two virgin girls and one is only 13 years old. Unknowingly, he does not use protection and risks every girl he sleeps with. (more…)

kids

The memorable 1995 film Kids is a day in the life of a youth culture where there are no parental boundaries and no consequences. As a viewer I found myself disturbed, dumbfounded and saddened over what I was viewing on the screen, but at the same time I was singularly transfixed. To witness a documentary style movie following children engaging in every sort of high-risk activity opened my eyes to the extent of corruption that can proliferate in youth.

Kids is the twisted buddy movie of a band of youth roving the streets of New York.  At the center of the company of users and abusers are Telly and Casper, two teenage boys with precarious home conditions and a taste for sex and drugs. Telly has made it his personal mission to deflower as many virgins has he can get his hands on. Within the course of the one-day that is portrayed in the movie, he sleeps with two extremely young girls. We find out through Jenny, one of the many virgins he has bedded, that Telly is spreading HIV through his many sexual encounters. (more…)

Larry Clark, a controversial independent film director, was born on January 1, 1943, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He’s known for his screenplays, films, and photography that he has produced throughout his life, and his controversial themes that appear in his work, such as sex, drugs, and violence. And with many of his works, these are themes that plays into the lives of the youth in America. He began working in photography in his teens, often taking drugs while he was doing it. He attended the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and later was drafted into the Vietnam War. Afterwards he published Tulsa, a photo documentary capturing much of the sex and drug experiences of Clark as he set out to show the grittier side of modern life. His films reflect this as well, including his debut for the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, Kids. (more…)