UNION SQUARE
Directed by: Stephen J. Szklarski.
Produced by: Lillian Miranda.
Written by: Lillian Miranda & Stephen J. Szklarski.
Director of Photography: Stephen J. Szklarski.
Edited by: Larry Provost & Stephen J. Szklarski.
Music by: Lewis Elderlane Experience & Lars Alive.
Released by: Alliance International Pictures.
Country of Origin: USA. 91 min. Not Rated.

Following seven homeless, heroin addicted twenty-somethings who populate Union Square and its surrounding neighborhood, the feature-length documentary Union Square does not shy away from the vicious cycle that traps addicts: beg, borrow, steal, use, beg, borrow, steal, use.... And that, unfortunately, is the basic structure for this stark, straightforward video of young addicts living and hustling on the streets of New York.

Divided by title cards into thematic sections, the doc cuts from one character to the next as they address the camera and, sometimes, one another. While capturing the essence of their lives, the video rarely ventures beyond the tedium that dominates their daily existence and too often gets bogged down in verbal whining about hard-luck lives.

Reflecting the addicts' never ending cycle of shooting up several times a day (just to keep from getting sick), Union Square is chock full of close-ups of dirty needles piercing collapsing veins. For the squeamish, these scenes may prove gut wrenching. But the discomfort they elicit is not so much physical as psychological. The power of addiction is so strong that viewers are apt to feel just as helpless as the addicts themselves. And we, as the audience, loose hope that the lives of these young people will ever improve.

Union Square is most affecting when we hear about their family histories, self-doubt and painful self-acknowledgment that they are lost and alone. Director Szklarski certainly worked hard to earn their trust, no easy feat, but he overly relies on interview after interview, some of which are poorly miked and composed. What results is a rather lengthy film that contains some meaningful insight into the sad and dismal lives of these young adults strangled by their own addiction.

Tina DiFeliciantonio, director/producer (Emmy and Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning Girls Like Us and the National Emmy Award winning Living With AIDS)
May 28, 2004