Kids + Money (2008) User Reviews

LA's kids speak about cash

[nsyc · 8/10 · 19 October 2008]

I saw this short doco before American Teen at the London Film Festival.

Tis a film all about kids & money, in LA.

Kids of all nationalities and monied back grounds are asked about money.

It starts off with a girl saying with a straight face that spending 4 digits on an outfit for school is a bit much, but for a really nice school bag it is worth it.

You can't not like a film that starts like that.

LA is about the perfect city in the world to make this film, the difference between poor and rich is huge, but everyone wants to look good.

So parents are bullied into spending more than they have to make their daughters fit in.

And kids have to get their own jobs, or their own hustle, to look the goods.

Is chock full of good characters, some of which say the most amazing things.

Great look into the minds of the Paris Hilton set, and also the set below who try to keep up without the money.

With the characters on offer, it was a shame it was only a short film.

How truly sad.

[curatorinfo · 27 December 2008]

Being a father of three. I live somewhere between the poorest and the wealthiest seen in this very disturbing short documentary. And having tuned in tonight by chance somewhere toward the middle found myself feeling grateful for my three bedroom home in the suburbs of Los Angeles, while watching a family who lived in an apartment sharing very little space. But I liked them, they seemed happy and the daughter even spoke of being grateful for what she had. This somewhat inspired me and made me grateful as well. And then my gratitude turned to horror as I was introduced to the 11 year old girl from Calabasas California who is so obviously lost and spiritually dead that I started to feel sick to my stomach at her pathetic desire of material clinging. So needy and desperate that this pretty little girl suddenly became ugly and repulsive. The sadder insight is that she is not unique but very common and who is to blame? Her own mother is quoted as saying she knows people who spend their last dime to appear wealthy and yet knowing this does not set a higher standard for her own daughter. I have been to four Father / Daughter dances with my oldest who is twelve. The joy was in the time shared how sad it would be if either of us were robbed of this joy because our attention was on what car a Dad drove up in or what another girl was wearing. In this short life we are given , these things are truly pointless, unless one needs to fill an perpetual emptiness that believe me, can NEVER be filled by money property or prestige. The poorest kids in this film are not the ones with little money but the others who are bankrupted on the inside.