The Dark End of the Street
Screening on Film
Directed by Jan Egleson.
With Laura Harrington, Henry Tomaszewski, Michelle Green.
US, 1981, 16mm, color, 89 min.
With Laura Harrington, Henry Tomaszewski, Michelle Green.
US, 1981, 16mm, color, 89 min.
A compelling depiction of race relations, The Dark End of the Street is a coming-of-age story set in a North Cambridge housing project. When a black youth falls off a building roof, the only witnesses are a white teenage couple. The girl’s impulse is to go to the authorities, but her boyfriend—who has already done time—advises her to keep quiet. As a result, another black youth is suspected of the "crime," and a number of suppressed tensions explode into the open. With a cast culled largely from the Theater Company of Boston and a bare-bones budget of $150,000, The Dark End of the Street represents regional independent filmmaking at its purest and an embodiment of the working-class concerns it addresses.