Watch This With Rick Ramos

Eddie Martin's We Were Once Kids In a continuation of last week's episode on Larry Clark and Harmony Korine's 1995 Kids, Mr. Chavez & I discovered a documentary peeling back the layers of that problematic and controversial film. Although we continue to believe that the earlier film is - in many ways - exceptional, Eddie Martin's 2021 expose (produced with Kids actor, Hamilton Harris), titled We Were Once Kids, reveals much of the troubling nature behind the making of the 1995 film. Alleged exploitation, real-life drug use, alcoholism, manipulation, and the age-old story of Hollywood's predatory nature are all explored in a film that focuses on the misunderstandings, naiveté, and sadness of a group of teenage non-actors that many would argue were taken advantage of in the creation of Kids. Questionable casting methods, alleged real-life drug use in the film, financial exploitation, betrayal and abandonment, and - finally - the death of two of the stars of the film - Justin Pierce (Casper) and Harold Hunter