AMERICA UNDERCOVER: HIGH ON CRACK STREET: LOST LIVES IN LOWELL (TV)
Summary
One in this series of documentaries presented by HBO. This program chronicles the lives of three crack-addicted friends living in Lowell, Massachusetts, during an eighteen-month period. Included are scenes from their daily lives and interviews with the three individuals -- Boo Boo, Brenda, and Dickie -- and their families, friends, and health and law enforcement professionals. Highlights include the following: Boo Boo, Brenda, and Dickie get high and discuss the ways that crack has ruined their lives and the reasons they cannot give up the drug; Boo Boo steals a set of golf clubs for drug money; Dickie works at a boxing gymnasium as his friends recall his promising boxing career before his drug use; Brenda learns she is pregnant and fights with her boyfriend and pimp, Boo Boo, at the women's clinic; Brenda stays with her ex-boyfriend Mike while hiding from Boo Boo, who tries to force her to return to him; Dickie is arrested for the twenty-seventh time after committing a string of violent crimes; Brenda checks into a drug rehabilitation center, where she considers an abortion; Dickie's family raises bail money by charging friends and acquaintances to see a videotape of Dickie's winning fight against Sugar Ray Leonard fifteen years earlier; Brenda sees an ultrasound of her baby at five months and decides against an abortion; Dickie is bailed out of jail and trains his younger brother for a boxing match; and Dickie and Brenda both relapse into heavy crack use. Soon, life changes for the three friends and they separate: Brenda leaves town to get clean and deliver her baby, Dickie receives a ten- to fifteen-year prison sentence, and Boo Boo discovers that he is HIV-positive. The program concludes with updates about Brenda, Boo Boo, and Dickie six months after the documentary project has ended. This program is closed-captioned.
(This program contains adult-oriented subject matter and language; discretion is advised.)
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: July 12, 1995 Wednesday 7:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:59:58
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:51346
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Abortion; Boxing; Drug abuse; Sports
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV series, 1983-2006
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Sheila Nevins … Executive Producer
- Alpert, Jon (See also: Alpert, Jonny) … Producer, Director
- De Leo, Maryann … Producer, Director
- Richard Farrell … Producer, Director
- Jonathan Moss … Associate Producer
- The Beautiful … Music by
- Craig Crawford … Music by
- Alpert, Jon (See also: Alpert, Jonny) … Reporter
- De Leo, Maryann … Reporter
- Richard Farrell … Reporter
- Dickie Eklund
- Sugar Ray Leonard