7th Street (2002) watch online HD

"7Th Street" is an interesting documentary about a city block in Manhattan between C and D avenues. Actor Josh Pais (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Deep Space Nine) makes his directorial debut as he combines his remembrances as a young man with interviews of the block's residents. The footage was shot over a ten-year period from 1992 to 2002.

Pais provides a historical overview as he explains the origins of the area. Back in the 1800's the area was a salt marsh, but so many immigrants were coming over to the United States that they needed housing and converted the marsh. Most of the population who moved into the area was Hungarian Jews. In the 1950's and 60's, blacks and Puerto Ricans moved in. The area began to look like a war zone as the inhabitants dealt with a race riot and the greed of few landlords who were able to make more money burning down their buildings rather than renting them out.

Pais arrived on the scene as a young child in the mid-60's when his parents divorced. His mother had friends who lived in an apartment on the street and the cheap rent of the East Village was the only place she could afford to go. She was a free spirit whose home was open to everyone. Many people of a bohemian persuasion passed through her living room, from artists to drug addicts, not that those classifications were mutually exclusive. His mother died in 1987, but we do get to meet Pais' father, a physics professor who left Holland as the Nazis were taking over. In the United States he worked with Oppenheimer and Einstein. He talked about some reservations he had about Robert growing up there.

Pais interviews what he calls his street family, a group with varied backgrounds, ranging from a nice married couple of artists who were friends of his mother to street hustlers who are always looking for ways to make a buck. Merlin is a drunk who lives on the street. He blames the death of his toddler for his alcoholism in a heartbreaking story. Manny is the king of the street. He owns a few buildings and everyone says he's a millionaire, but you wouldn't know it from his appearance. He has an assistant who helps him with recycling, a Puerto Rican man who is studying Judaism. We even meet one of his mother's paramours. They are all people just trying to survive and the one thing that binds them is this block on 7Th Street.

In the '90s life for the residents of 7Th Street changed drastically. First, they had to deal with the arrival of the drug trade as it made its way to the East Village. Pais had his family's life threatened by the drug kingpin of the neighborhood who didn't want a movie made that could affect his business. In 1998, the drugs were swept out and developers realized how much money there was to make in real estate and the area became gentrified. The new, higher rents forced out some residents.

Pais serves his friends and family well by creating a good story out of their lives. This documentary might have greater meaning for those who grew up in a city as opposed to those who lived in rural areas, but I, who grew up in the suburbs of Southern California, was curious to learn the way the people of this neighborhood bonded together living in such close quarters. I don't know the names of anyone on my street and "7th Street" showed me I'm missing out on the opportunity to learn about other people's ideas and cultures. It's a great reminder to the ego that there is more to life than ourselves.

The DVD extras include an audience Q&A session with Pais at a film festival and about 30 minutes of clips of Manny, some of which appeared in the documentary.

• 3.5/5 Little Guys -

I saw this on the Sundance channel and was incredibly impressed. This is a documentary of both Josh Pais's life, and the life of 7th Street, in Manhattan's Lower East Side. He interweaves his own life story with the history of 7th Street. Pais interviews old friends from 7th Street, and even if you don't know them, you grow to care deeply about them. Deeply. I was moved to tears by the end of the documentary. It was fascinating to watch the history of 7th street unfold before you -- what I call pre-Giuliani to post Giuliani. It went from being a Jewish enclave, to a hippie artist's mecca, to a dangerous drug area, to a Yuppie paradise whose rents are forcing all the old-timers out. It was so interesting to watch this in 2003, to watch people discussing the dangerous drug dealers in 1995, knowing what the people in '95 could have no way of knowing -- those dealers would soon be history. The people obviously think that the drug situation is eternal -- they have no idea what is right around the corner. The people represent all ethnic groups -- Jewish, Puerto Rican, black, Native American, white -- because that's what 7th Street was all about. Diversity. I am so glad Pais made this documentary. I spent a lot of time on the LES during my adolescence, and I actually knew and remembered some of the people he interviewed. I wish this were available on DVD. I would buy it immediately.

The jacket might have said "Josh Pais has made an extended home movie that focuses on Josh, his mom and dad, Josh, his wife, his son, Josh, some folks in the neighborhood, and Josh. If you enjoy the format of home movies - family values, family scenes, weepy sentimentality, minimal editing, zany characters, unfocused interviews and a self-important voice-over - this movie is a must-see."

But the jacket said that this was a documentary about 7th Street near Alphabet City NYC .... "Sundance" .... "riveting" .... "compelling". etc.

There's an NYC street guy in it. Many if not most NYC street characters have a good story. This guy has an amazing story really. But Josh just plows through so that the editing and camera-work leave you feeling "Uh, and?"

There's a showdown with a dangerous drug dealer. We hear about it through a self-interview right after the event happened. This should have been chilling, frightening, intense. Instead it was flat and boring.

Many NYC neighborhoods have incredible stories. This could have been one. It isn't. It's just a lot about Josh and his family and friends. The only thing missing is a scene of his son with a birthday cake and frosting smeared around.

Josh played one of the turtles in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." That's probably a good fit for him.

7th Street: 5 out of 10: Nostalgia about ones childhood is a dangerous thing. It permeates 7th street where Josh Pais is clearly to close to the subject as he bemoans the loss of the crime ridden hellhole of his youth and worries about the gentrification of said block. (There are outdoor café's now and people are drinking lattés oh the horror the horror)

That said it is a fascinating documentary with a great group of people (especially Reno Thunder who was his mothers occasional boyfriend.) In fact this is quite the high production home movie with many interviews with family who often counteract Mr. Pais's thesis about the neighborhood change and when Mr. Thunder falls on hard times the change is so dramatic there are clearly more forces at work then the neighborhood cleaning itself up.

I wish we had spent even more time with Mr. Thunder after the change and less on Mr. Pais's childhood (especially the endless footage of his late mother and how she was at the center of an art revolution. She actually comes across as kind of a …how does one put this nicely… party girl.) Mr. Pais's brother in a hilarious and all to short clip reminisces on his reaction of finding Marcel Marceau in his living room one morning. He clearly doesn't hold the neighborhood (or mimes) to his heart and seemed glad to escape.

There is a staged and telling scene at the end where an adult Mr. Pais and his friend play in a fire hydrant while yuppies look on disapprovingly, his point is lost in the fact he does look quite silly. There are some things from childhood we just let go.

I feel so blessed to have been watching the Sundance channel when this powerful, yet delicate film began. Josh Pais took us to his home on 7th street in New York, where his heart lives. Where he grew up. Where his love for the ever evolving society of that street just grew stronger throughout the years, even as the street and it's residents faced destruction from the drug peddlers and all that follows them. I'm not good at telling the story, but Josh's love for humanity and tradition embraces all of his friends on 7th street, and those of us fortunate enough to see his graceful film. Dignity. That is what he gave to the faces and voices of the people he filmed who he spoke with, ate with, quietly sat with, laughed and cried with, who lived there on 7th street, in apartments, or in brown boxes in the alley. It made no difference, they all became the family of 7th street, NYC, USA. Where he and his wife are raising their son. The colors of emotion and reality that this film travels will exhaust you, and energize you. Maybe even humanize you more...it did me.

Although Josh Pais has done a masterful job of telling his personal view of 7th Street, he has missed including an important influence on East 7th Street from the late '80s to the present, notably Graffiti East 7th Baptist Ministry which has been a strong influence on the block between Avenues B and C for 25 years. Started in a rundown storefront near the corner of Avenue B, it has recently renovated the old synagogue in the center of the block and under the direction on Rev. Taylor Field has served the spiritual needs of the community as well as raised the awareness of diversity and brotherhood. At any rate, bravo for a beautiful portrait of a unique street--as far as it went.