Growing up in the inner city is a bleak and difficult experience no one should have to endure. Hard core poverty is rampart. Children live and ply in vandalized, filthy buildings, many of which are not up to code. Mediocre teachers try to protect the children by limiting the horizons of their dreams, and hope is often a theoretical concept.
On 125th street in the Harlem section of New York City, despair can be seen everywhere. The buildings are ancient and fragile, and barely provide adequate shelter for the people living in them. Crime is everywhere, and graffiti angrily announces the boundaries of gang territory.
Despite the decay and fear, families still hold together. People persevere, and try to raise their children the best they can. This is a documentary about trying to have a childhood in the middle of an urban hell. This is about finding refuge in family, about trying to find security in a hopeless city that demands that its inhabitants grow up as fast as they can.
