"As modern as a film can be while still remaining highly romantic. It's part journalism, part fiction, part poetry… Based on the photos and relationships the late great Mary Ellen Mark developed with street kids in Seattle for a photo series for LIFE magazine. LIFE magazine photos have birthed great films like this one and Little Fugitive (kind of). I’ll never forget Dewayne, Tiny and Rat."

"You have to put Hendrix in there if we’re doing this properly. Why Axis I don’t know, but I remember I had a copy of that record without a cover as a kid so I made a cover for it. It was some religious record sleeve - there were all these new folk bands playing at churches in the early seventies - but there was no record in the sleeve and I fancied myself as a drawer so I took a magic marker and put the album title and drew my version of Hendrix playing the guitar. It was one of the earliest records I listened to – I’m from Seattle and everyone in Seattle has a Hendrix record or five. I thought I was being a little bit different going for Axis as a nine or ten year-old kid, 'cos it wasn’t one of the main records, it didn’t have any of the hits on it. It was kinda dark and twisted and cool. I think it stands the test of time musically."