#1080: BELL, Martin: Tiny: The Life Of Erin Blackwell (2016)

BELL, Martin (United States)

Tiny: The Life Of Erin Blackwell (2016)

Spine #1080
Blu-ray

In Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, director Martin Bell and photographer Mary Ellen Mark draw on their thirty-year relationship with one of the most indelible subjects of Streetwise. Now a forty-four-year old mother of ten, Erin Blackwell, a.k.a. Tiny, reflects with Mark on the journey they've experienced together, from Blackwell's battles with addiction to her regrets to her dreams for her own children, even as she sees them being pulled down the same path of drugs and desperation that she was. Interweaving three decades' worth of Mark's photographs and footage that includes previously unseen outtakes from Streetwise, this is a heartrending, deeply empathetic portrait of a family struggling to break free of the cycle of trauma, as well as a summation of the life's work of Mark, an irreplacable artistic voice.

88 minutes
Color

1:85:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2021

Director

Martin Bell was 73 when he directed Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell.

Other Bell films in the Collection:

#1079: Streetwise (1984)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by historian Andrew Hedden; journalist Cheryl McCall’s 1983 Life magazine article about teenagers living on the street in Seattle; and reflections on Blackwell written by Mary Ellen Mark.

Commentary

None.

Interview 1

With Bell about photographer Mark.

Interview 2

With Streetwise editor Nancy Baker.

Four short films by Bell

1. Tiny at 20 (1993)
2. The Amazing Plastic Lady (1995)
3. Erin (2005)
4. “Streetwise” Revisited: Rat (2021)

Trailers

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

By Director

By Spine #