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17 BLOCKS
by Davy Rothbart
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5d6b_4ddbd402342b4301a511f56ed69ed59d~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_669,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/4c5d6b_4ddbd402342b4301a511f56ed69ed59d~mv2.jpg)
SYNOPSIS
In 1999, nine-year-old Emmanuel Sanford-Durant and his family began filming their daily lives in America’s most dangerous neighborhood — just 17 blocks be hind the U.S. Capitol. They've been filming ever since. Made in a unique collaboration with filmmaker and journalist Davy Rothbart, and spanning two decades, 17 BLOCKS illuminates a nation's ongoing crisis through one family's raw, stirring, and deeply personal saga.
DETAILS
95 mins
2019
USA
English
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TRAILER
CREDITS
Directed & Produced by Davy Rothbart
Written and Edited by Jennifer Tiexiera
Produced by Alex Turtletaub, Michael B. Clark, Marc Turtletaub, Rachel Dengiz
Director of Photography: Zachary Shields
Original Score by: Nick Urata
Story Consultant: Mark Monroe
Executive Producers: Cheryl Sanford, Jennifer Tiexiera
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/4c5d6b_704c1d1354ba4761b944624aa8f5095f~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_656,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/4c5d6b_704c1d1354ba4761b944624aa8f5095f~mv2.jpg)
BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR - DAVY ROTHBART
Davy Rothbart is an Emmy Award - winning filmmaker, bestselling author and journalist, frequent contributor to public radio's This American Life, and the creator of Found Magazine.
Rothbart's film MEDORA, about a resilient high - school basketball team in a dwindling Indiana town, based on the New York Times story by Pulitzer Prize winner John Branch, was Executive Produced b y Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci, and premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. MEDORA later aired on the acclaimed PBS series Independent Lens and won an Emmy Award.
Rothbart previously directed two documentaries about the activist band Rise Against, which became best - selling DVDs in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Sweden. A separate short film featuring Rise Against's song "Make It Stop" was created for Dan Savage's ItGetsBetter project and later won an MTV Music Video Award.
Rothbart's radio stories featured on This American Life have reached more than 20 million listeners, and his books FOUND and My Heart Is An Idiot have debuted on The New York Times Bestseller List. He has made multiple appearances on The Late Show With David Letterman , been feature d on ABC's 20/20, Last Call with Carson Daly , MSNBC, and NPR's All Things Considered, and been profiled in The New Yorker and The New York Times . A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rothbart now lives in Los Angeles, California.
SELECT FESTIVALS
TRIBECA 2019〡KARLOVY VARY 2019〡VERZIO 2019〡AFI DOCS 2019〡ZURICH FILM FESTIVAL 2019〡ANTENNA 2019〡SAO PAOLO IFF 2020〡CHAMPS ELYSEES 2020
PRESS
"Remarkable"
- Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post
"Stirring"
- Tambay Obenson, IndieWire
"A poignant, at times gutting, astoundingly generous documentary"
- Andrea Horton, The Guardian
"Admirably moving"
- Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
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