17 Blocks

Brilliantly assembled from 20 years of home video footage, 17 Blocks is a heart-warming portrait of a family and
a disturbing portrait of society. Nine-year-old Emmanuel, a promising student and the youngest of three siblings, gets a video camera and starts filming his Washington, D.C. family – just 17 blocks behind the US Capitol building. Through his eyes, despite hardship the house is filled with love, and the streets have more to offer than violence, drugs and shootings. The raw beauty of the footage is astonishing, and director Davy Rothbart (This American Life) renders it into a touching, one-of-a-kind non-fiction odyssey.