The Abandoned Children (1975)

• 76%
• 1975
• Documentary
• Danny Lyon

Danny Lyon is one of America's great photographers, best known for his series on Chicago bike gangs and his on-going series of death row inmates in the Texas prison system. Lyon was partners with Robert Frank in a company they formed to make documentaries and support their photographic work when he made this poetic cinema-verité portrait of homeless children on the streets of Santa Marta, Colombia. Lyon's remarkable trademark ability to be with the boys as if he were one of them allows him (and us) to experience their day-to-day lives. Punctuated by songs written and sung by one of the boys, the film has a transcendent objectivity tinged with heartbreaking beauty. Restored at 2K by Mark Rance from the original camera negative held at the George Eastman House, the audio has been restored from the original production tapes. This effort is part of an on-going collaboration between Watchmaker Films and Lyons' Bleak Beauty.