"Oz is a tough seventeen-year-old tomboy who commands respect on the streets, even though she is conflicted about her chosen profession: dealing drugs. Suzette is a fifteen-year-old who gets knocked up by a smooth-talking hustler, a fact she must keep hidden from her mother, a domestic worker desperate to help her daughter escape the cycle of poverty. And Marisol is a free spirit who got sucked into the vortex of crack use and is fighting to keep her young daughter out of foster care. Each of them makes choices that lead into dark places; finding out who manages to emerge from the shadows makes for the films greatest suspense. While these characters may sound familiar, never have I seen them presented with so much heart and respect for those involved. Carefully drawn, with a casual but particular attention to detail, each of these girls truly comes alive. Consequently, their journeys become that much more compelling and gripping, leading to refreshingly honest and complex emotional reactions. On the Outs conveys a totally real sense of place and an honesty in its storytelling so often lacking in films that purport to be about the unseen America. In their press materials, the filmmakers attribute the source material for the film to real girls from the streets and juvenile jails; it is to their credit that they have celebrated these individuals with a work of this calibre. Totally eschewing the clichéd representations of ghetto life and featuring astonishing, authentic performances from their young actors, filmmakers Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik have made one of the years most extraordinary films." Noah Cowan
Production: Youth House Productions Inc., Fader Films, both New York
Screenplay: Lori Silverbush
Cinematographer: Mariana Sánchez de Antuñano
Editor: Martha Skolnik
Composers: Ricardo Leigh, Brian Satz
Cast: Anny Mariano, Judy Marte
Format: High Definition, Color
Running time: 82 min.
Language: English
