THE director of Kids, Larry Clark, is a friendly, open, ageing hippy kind a guy who got the idea for his bleak film after getting to know a bunch of skate-boarders in New York's Washington Square Park. Amoral as they are, he seems fond of them. But no way would he let his own children - he has two daughters, aged nine and 21, and a son, 12, - get involved in that kind of scene.
Indeed Clark, a 53-year-old photographer-turned-director, believes the movie would be a good starting point for parents to start talking to their young teens. That won't happen here, where the film has an 18-cert, but in the US, according to Clark, many parents did use it to start a dialogue about sex and drugs with their children.
When he talks about being a parent, Clark sounds like any sensible parent counsellor: "I'm gonna be sure I know where my kids are, and I'll give them scenarios about things that can happen. Kids lose their innocence, so early, at nine, at 12, they watch TV, everything is sex. They re under a lot of pressure.
He brought his son to see Kids, reckoning it would create the opportunity to talk about interests that would be coming up shortly for him. As he grows up I'll certainly keep a watch on him. As a parent, you have to be aware, have to keep dialogue open. And you shouldn't, like a lot of parents, hide or reconstruct your past, should let them know you were once like them."
He can identify with the skate-boarders, even if to an adult audience they mostly seem like a selfish, dumb, irresponsible bunch (the boys, particularly). Clark himself grew up tough in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in trouble in school, stuttering, wanting to be out with his friends, where the fun was. "That's what kids want. I'm still pissed didn't get to a Little Richard concert in 1956; I think I was grounded." He published two acclaimed books of photographs about teens in the Tulsa drug scene, got drafted to Vietnam, spent a decade or so on drugs, and some time in prison. As he says, his own children would have to work hard to fool him.
Not like some of the gullible parents of the real-life kinds on whom the movie is based. (The actors include skate-boarders too, and the script was written by ex-skater Harmony Korine.)
"It was 1992. You'd get these girls from uptown 12 to 16 kids of doctors, lawyers, politicians, they'd come over at the weekend for raves, take acid, stay out all weekend. They'd tell their parents they were going to a girlfriend's house, and their parents were totally satisfied."
After skating in the park for months, he became accepted by the skaters, and the idea for the film, a film about how kids talk and behave when parents aren't looking, grew. One thing that surprised even Clark was the limits of sex education: "I called it the summer of condoms; it was 1992 and Planned Parenthood gave away condoms to kids in the park along with talks about safe-sex. The kids knew everything, they knew all the diseases. And after six months, I discovered none of them were using condoms; indeed when it comes to sex, it's becoming clear that nobody wants to use condoms.
THE crude language and graphic sex gave Kids a notoriety that served it well: although considered an arthouse film, it got distribution in malls all over America. It's even bean a hit in places like Germany and Brazil, he says. shaking his head in pleased surprise.
He's already planning his next movie, and hopes his 21-year-old daughter will work on it, with him. That's appropriate, because this time it will be about parents and families.