Yael Shavitt

In the wake of a terrorist attack, a group of young people in New York seek to capitalize on the hysteria in a variety of morally dubious ways.

A depressed punk fan and her supportive friend hit upon a rare opportunity to see her favorite band perform.

A documentary poem interweaving seven parallel stories of children on their way to school and back, Sidewalk offers a glimpse into the rare moments of true independence afforded to these young schoolchildren. Along the way we witness the playful, the stressful, the cruel, the magical and the thrilling moments of this daily journey, which become a lucid voyage into the very heart of childhood.A meditation on children’s consciousness and the rite of passage between childhood and adulthood that passes in the blink of the eye, Sidewalk challenges us to grapple with questions of how we become who we are today and how any of us managed to survive the very real tribulations of childhood.

In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.