17 Blocks

Ends Thursday, March 25th

Tickets include Q&A with director Davy Rothbart and subjects Cheryl and Smurf Sanford, moderated by Academy Award winner Marshall Curry and Michael-Sean Spence from Everytown for Gun Safety

(USA / 2019 / Directed by Davy Rothbart)

Journalist Davy Rothbart’s 17 Blocks focuses on a single family who filmed their life in one of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods for over 20 years. Putting a human face on issues that are often packaged as political wedges or exploited on cable news — from poverty to addiction to gun violence and systemic racism — this is an outstanding achievement in documentary filmmaking.

In 1999, filmmaker Davy Rothbart met nine-year-old Emmanuel Sanford-Durant and his teenage brother, Smurf, during a pickup basketball game. After befriending the pair, he provided them with a video camera to film their everyday lives, and soon other family members, including the boys’ teenage sister, Denice, and their mother, Cheryl, were joining in. Over two decades, the family filmed everything – from their joy over Emmanuel’s college-bound future to their worries over whether Smurf would avoid prison. In the hands of editor Jennifer Tiexiera, the story contained within the resulting 1,000 hours of footage feels like a fateful multigenerational saga. As the years pass and grainy camcorder footage gives way to widescreen digital video, the film steers clear of overt political discussions, even if governmental negligence fills every frame. 17 Blocks’ most overt political act is its title, representing the distance between the Sanford home and the U.S. Capitol building. Despite its proximity, the Capitol feels distant from the residents of the Sanfords’ largely African American neighborhood, who feel disconnected from, if not outright abandoned by, their government. Capturing both the sorrows and the joyful moments that emerge from its subjects’ lives, 17 Blocks is a story of resilience that suggests people should not be defined by the tragedies they’ve suffered, but by their fight to overcome them.

Unrated / 1 hr 36 mins.