Documentary Films - Competition 2019 / 17 Blocks / USA 2018
The moment nine-year-old Emmanuel received his first video camera in 1999, he began to shoot a chronicle of the Sanford family, warts and all. Ten years later, filmmaker and journalist Davy Rothbart uses his material to complete this disarming tale from Washington, D.C., where the streets are ruled by poverty and violence just seventeen blocks from the Capitol.
The moment nine-year-old Emmanuel got his first video camera in 1999, he began to shoot a chronicle of the Sanford family, warts and all. Adolescence wasn’t easy for him and his siblings, growing up in a cramped home without a father, and raised by a loving mother who struggled unsuccessfully against her inner demons. Although located just seventeen blocks from the US Capitol, the proximity could not protect them from the poverty and violence of their neighborhood, nor from the unpredictability of the world. Ten years later, filmmaker and journalist Davy Rothbart uses raw documentary material, disarming in its authenticity, to create a moving drama about the power of family bonds and the brutality of everyday life in America.
Martin Horyna
97 min / Color, DCP
European premiere
Director Davy Rothbart
/ Screenplay Jennifer Tiexiera
/ Dir. of Photography Zachary Shields
/ Music Nick Urata
/ Editor Jennifer Tiexiera
/ Producer Alex Turtletaub, Michael B. Clark, Marc Turtletaub, Rachel Dengiz
/ Production Beachside
/ Sales Submarine Entertainment
www: www.17blocksfilm.com
Davy Rothbart (b. 1975, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA). Selected filmography: Rise Against: Generation Lost – How We Survive (2006), Another Station: Another Mile (2010), Medora (2013), 17 Blocks (2018)
Submarine Entertainment
197 Grand Street 6W, 10013, New York
United States of America
Phone: +1 212 625 1410
E-mail: [email protected]
Rachel Dengiz
Producer
David Pechar
Assistant Producer
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