Film Description

Three 18 year-olds, growing up in poverty, in Los
Angeles, Philadelphia, and NYC were given Hi-8
video cameras, training, and professional mentors.
For a year they recorded events in their own lives. Then, working closely with an award winning documentary editor, their remarkable, complex, and unexpected stories were fashioned into an hour long film. Frank Cardon takes us on a rich and frightening inner journey to the depths of teen on teen violence in Philadelphia. Adawna and her younger sister Gloria live on their own in Hollywood, away from an abusive family situation.
When Adawna accompanies Gloria back to their
Arkansas home, they sadly find that there are times when you can't go home again. La Traun Parker is also looking for family. He is on the way South in search of his father, who had left years before. La Traun's life in Harlem stands in sharp contrast with what he discovers in South Carolina. Each of their stories, while rooted in the often chaotic realities of growing up in poverty, transcend the viewers' preconceptions and stereotypes about teenagers, and eventually speak to a need for family, community and self-knowlege.