Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street
Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street
R | 17 March 2000 (USA)
Black Tar Heroin: The Dark End of the Street Trailers

The film follows a simple structure, and shows the drug-related degradation of five youths (Jake, Tracey, Jessica, Alice, Oreo) during the course of three years. The film depicts drug-related crimes and diseases: prostitution, male prostitution, AIDS, and lethal overdoses.

Reviews
Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
ReiZer0 This documentary is a very dark look into the world of young heroin addicts in the 90s. It shows these young peoples lives taking a downward spiral as their addictions take a hold of them. I personally have never been addicted to any drugs but I always find it interesting to see other people deep into drugs and the reasons behind it. You get a look into each characters lives when they are interviewed and hear the disturbing things they talk about growing up which has contributed to the state of their lives now. I got emotionally attached to the people in this documentary and you see how vulnerable they are. I found this documentary disturbing and also quite emotional especially with one girl and how her life hits rock bottom. It was sad seeing updates on some of these people and what happened to them but I know some of these people turned their lives around. I would recommend this if anyone is into these real life dark documentaries, I think it's very interesting to see what the life of a drug addict is like.
jamoore2 If anyone is wondering about updates for those who were filmed, check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBhDnVY0f08I am a documentary lover and while I do not do drugs myself. Docs about different drugs have always fascinated me and is probably a good reason of why I will never try them. I think Black Tar is a great documentary for teens to watch. I live in Montana and meth has been a huge problem for us. Many highschoolers are now doing meth at parties instead of smoking pot or drinking. They need to be educated about all drugs so that they make educated decisions about what they are willing to "try" that could and most likely will lead to addiction and/or death.
Alex C JunkieFaggot A friend of a friend is a user, so we managed to write a short but dense critique on this excellent documentary. We are both Generation Y (24-25), so it's like watching the lives of our imaginary junkie cousins.First of all, this documentary is true. Well, you're gonna say "aren't documentaries suppose to outline reality?". Yes, but this masterpiece manages to not become over-dramatic, and follow the lives of 5 very different personae.Second of all, the shocking nature of this work of art is not meant to create an atmosphere of "drugs are bad, okay?" but to portray how the misuse of such a powerful substance can lead to the destruction of many people's lives, when the information about the substance itself, its use and its pharmacology is purely street-wise due to the lack of the Internet.Today there are a lot of people who we can technically call "addicts", but they live perfectly normal lives because of the information given through the internet, even before start self-medicating with opiates.We live in a post-curt Cobain world, so when you watch this documentary, try to have in mind how these characters would be if they lived in the age of Web 2.0
jpmaijala I was flipping channels late one evening and I caught the last half of this film. It was horrifying and bleak yet absolutely fascinating, like watching a car accident in slow-motion.The filmmakers set out to tell the truth about the effects of heroin addiction by following the daily lives of a group of black tar heroin addicts in the San Francisco Bay area. We see them become progressively sicker, thinner, paler and even lose hope of going clean. Three of them (2 guys and a girl) work as prostitutes to support their habit (2 later test positive for HIV). All the while they remain remarkably candid about their condition and we learn all we'd ever want to know about this sad lifestyle.I recommend this film but people with delicate sensibilities might want to stay away. Schools and drug awareness programs should use this film!