High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell
| High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell | |
|---|---|
| Directed by |
Jon Alpert MaryAnn DeLeo Richard Farrell |
| Produced by | HBO, DCTV |
| Written by | Jon Alpert MaryAnn DeLeo Richard Farrell |
| Starring |
Dicky Eklund Gary (Boo-Boo) Giuffrida Brenda |
| Edited by | Jon Alpert MaryAnn DeLeo John Custodio |
|
Release date
|
8 August 1995 |
|
Running time
|
60 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell is a 1995 American documentary film directed by Richard Farrell, Maryann DeLeo and Jon Alpert. It was a co-production of HBO and DCTV, produced by Farrell, DeLeo, and Alpert. The documentary takes place about 30 miles northwest of Boston in the economically depressed former mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts.
While Lowell is generally known for its central role in the Industrial Revolution as the first planned textile town in the United States, the city had fallen on hard times since the mills left the city in the early 1920s. Wang Laboratories, a major employer in Lowell in the more prosperous 1980s, declared bankruptcy and virtually went out of business in the early 1990s. The Lowell of 1993 had a large percentage of the population unemployed or underemployed, in poverty, and unaffected by positive things in the city like the Lowell National Historical Park and The Lowell Folk Festival (established in 1990). Much of the film takes place in a lower-class section of the city's (Lower) Highlands neighborhood, documenting a period of nearly 18 months, with 1993 being the primary focus.
The documentary frames the lives of three addicts against this background; particularly their hopeless situations, while exploring them as human beings. The film reveals the lives behind addiction: their aspirations, why they do drugs and why they don't quit, etc. It interviews their families, friends, and members of the community, discussing how drugs have destroyed the lives of the addicts. Richard Farrell, one of the directors, writers, and producers, is a native Lowellian and a former addict; allowing the crew deep access to the city's drug scene.
The filmmakers follow around three people: Boo Boo, Brenda, and former professional boxer Dicky Eklund in their daily exploits to get high.
Throughout the course of the documentary, Brenda, a prostitute, becomes pregnant and contemplates an abortion but has to "hook" to pay for the abortion. Whenever she earns enough money she blows it on drugs instead of getting the $395 abortion. The father could be her on-again off-again boyfriend Mike (who doesn't want you in his building) or the father may, in fact, be Boo Boo, whom she says has been pimping her out. Brenda also attempts detox rehab for the baby, but after talking to her parents decides to abort, then do detox, then to go back home. Brenda's ambivalence about aborting the baby becomes a big sub-plot in the film, as she shares that her parents forced her to have an abortion at age 15 and it had been a "nightmare" for her, and she felt like she'd "murdered" her baby. At one point she does go into detox, but she loses the will to complete the program and walks out, as she had 6 times before.
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