Documentary on Davide Sorrenti and the 'Heroin Chic' Era

Charlie Curran's documentary 'See Know Evil' (SKE) explores the life of Italian photographer Davide Sorrenti (Naples, 1976 – New York, 1997) and the 1990s youth culture that spawned the 'heroin chic' aesthetic. Sorrenti, who founded the SKE crew of writers, became a symbol of the decade's counterculture, blending hip hop, grunge, street, and thug influences with a prep-school gangster attitude. The film draws on the extensive Sorrenti family archive, featuring interviews with his mother Francesca, brother Mario, sister Vanina, and Jamie King, a teenage top model and heroin addict. It documents the loft in East Village that served as the crew's hangout, reminiscent of Larry Clark's 'Kids'. Sorrenti's work, alongside photographers like Corinne Day, rejected glamour for realism, influenced by Larry Clark and Nan Goldin. The documentary critiques the fashion industry's co-opting of rebellion, as noted by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter's 'The Rebel Sells'. Sorrenti's death marked a turning point, with President Clinton condemning the glorification of heroin as destructive. The film shows how the 1990s shifted from impossible beauty to a more authentic, albeit tragic, representation in style magazines like The Face, I-D, and Dazed & Confused.