CHAMPS-ELYSÉES FILM FESTIVAL
 
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17 BLOCKS
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Completed - ENGLISH - Documentary - 95 minutes

Log Line

The film illuminates a nation's ongoing crisis through one family's story, just 17 Blocks from the US Capital Building.

Year of production : 2019

Director(s) : Davy ROTHBART
Producer(s) : Alex TURTELTAUB, Michael B. CLARK, Marc TURTELTAUB, Rachel DENGIZ

Synopsis

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.

Production

Country(ies) : USA

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Festivals and Awards

Karlovy Vary IFF 2019 Documentary Films - Competition
Tribeca FF 2019 (Best Editing)
Zurich FF 2019 (Special Mention)
AFI DOCS 2019


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