The "kids" in THE COMMITMENTS may be older than you are interested in, but the conflicts of a band have a basis in reality. If you want "real" life, see PIXOTE, directed by Hector Babenco, which has to do with street children in Brazil. SALAAM BOMBAY, directed by Maira Nair, is about street children also. In both films, the children actors were street children. The child in PIXOTE died from a knife wound several years after the film was made. Maira Nair relates that her production company attempted to help the children who appeared in her film, e. g., setting up savings accounts for them. The lead in her film had been either sold or apprenticed by the family before becoming a street child. After the film was made, the child returned home to tell of his film experience, but was beaten, according to the story, for lying. What about Luis Bunuel's LOS OLVIDADOS. Kurosawa's last film (the title escapes me) focuses on modern childrens' perspectives of the effects of the atomic bomb. Doyle Burke Mesa Community College (AZ) Burke@MC