Blatant misogyny, borderline child pornography, date rape, copious drug use and remorseless violence form the basis of Larry Clark’s directorial debut Kids (1995). Dissatisfied with the conventional angst and superficiality of teen movies of the period, Clark’s quasi-documentary style piece offers a nihilistic view of a youth culture bereft of any sort of moral compass. The film opens with Telly “the virgin surgeon” forcefully having unprotected sex with a prepubescent girl — a scene which becomes all the more harrowing once it is revealed that that Telly is, unbeknownst to himself, HIV positive. The film progresses with petty theft and full scale violence when Telly and his friends almost fatally assault a man, an action which leaves them with little remorse. Indeed, there is no relief for the teenagers against the ennui of daily life but the fleeting pleasure from violence, drugs and sexual experimentation. Clark, however, manages to avoid shock effects and refuses to lay the blame for the teenagers’ behaviour on the customary mitigating factors of ethnic conflict and social background. The script, written by Harmony Korine, and the the use of  amateur actors was realistic to the point where many people believed that Clark had simply followed and filmed a real gang of teenagers. Such realism led to Leo Fitzpatrick, who played Telly, to be harassed by the public following the release of the film.