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Underage
Racism, glue-sniffing, petty theft and promiscuity - Coventry teenagers at play.
Director: Kim Longinotto and Lizzie Lemon
Overview
Underage lifts the lid on the insular world of a group of wayward Coventry teenagers in the early 1980s. In the run up to the summer holidays, struggling to make sense of their lives, the teens take solace in glue sniffing, drinking excessively, getting arrested or head-banging to Motorhead - there's not a text book in sight. The film ends with a performance from home-grown Coventry lads The Specials at Butts Stadium.
This is one of director Kim Longintto's earliest films and bears some of the hallmarks that would characterise her later work - not least the candour of her subjects, who are given free reign to speak for themselves. On its release the film was criticised in some quarters for focusing solely on the negative aspects of the teenagers lives.
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