A fifteen-year-old boy wants to buy a gun from an adult racketeer named Priest, in order to become president of the gang to which he belongs, and to return them to active "bopping" (gang fighting) which has declined in Harlem.
Direction
Shirley Clarke's quasi-documentary style blurs fiction into terrifying reality.
Cinematography
Black-and-white Harlem that sweats and breathes through every frame.
Acting
Non-professional cast delivers performances documentary crews dream of capturing.
Director
Shirley Clarke
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Clarke cast actual Harlem gang members and street kids; many couldn't read scripts, so she fed them lines through hidden earpieces.
The film was banned in several cities and labeled 'obscene'—not for sex or violence, but for showing Black poverty without white saviors.
US
