Acting
Shareeka Epps's debut—she's 11 and already devastating.
Direction
Fleck's patient observation of Brooklyn's industrial decay.
Writing
Every line unsaid weighs more than dialogue spoken.
Director
Ryan Fleck
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fleck and Boden expanded this into Half Nelson (2006), with Shareeka Epps reprising her role opposite Ryan Gosling.
Shot in Gowanus before it became Brooklyn's hottest neighborhood—captured the canal's industrial desolation that gentrification erased.
US
