''New York Street Games'' is a 2010

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by Matt Levy about children's games played by kids in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for centuries. The games are fondly remembered by people who grew up in the city. Current and historical documentary footage shows children playing these games, interspersed with scenes of celebrities discussing their own childhood experiences playing these games on the streets of New York. The story is brought to the present with discussions of the current role of street games and opinions as to what kids lose by not having the freedom to play without adult supervision, most importantly the social skills developed when kids could play in the streets.

Synopsis

''New York Street Games'' lovingly recalls a central feature of the lives of hundreds of thousands of children who grew up in New York City in the twentieth century: games played in the streets of the city. Many of the ball games featured are played with a pink rubber ball called a

Spaldeen A Spalding Hi-Bounce Ball, often called a Spaldeen or a Pensie Pinkie, is a rubber ball, described as a tennis ball core without the felt. These balls are commonly used in street games developed in the mid-20th century, such as Chinese handball (a ...

. In the documentary, Whoopi Goldberg is seen discussing her childhood, and handling a Spaldeen. At some point, she puts the ball to her nose and smells it; you can tell by the look on her face that she is transported by her memories of playing games with a Spaldeen as a child.

The games

Stickball Stickball is a street game similar to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City and Philadelphia. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, ...

Ringolevio Ringolevio (also spelled ringalevio or ring-a-levio) is a children's game which originated in the streets of New York City, where it is known to have been played at least as far back as the late 19th century. It is one of the many variations of ta ...

* Stoopball *

Kick the can Kick the can (also known as kick the block, guard the block, can can, 40 40, pom pom, tip the can, tin can copper, and can up can down), is an outdoor children's game related to tag, hide and seek, and capture the flag, played with as few as thr ...

Punchball Punchball is a sport spawned by and similar to baseball, but without a pitcher, catcher, or bat. The " batter" essentially plays " fungo" without a bat, bouncing or tossing up the ball and then using a volleyball-type approach to put the ball (u ...

Hopscotch Hopscotch is a popular playground game in which players toss a small object, called a lagger, into numbered triangles or a pattern of rectangles outlined on the ground and then hop or jump through the spaces and retrieve the object. It is a ch ...

Slapball Patball is a non-contact competitive ball game played in many forms using one's hands or head to hit the ball against a wall – the objective being to get the succeeding player out. The game is popular in school playgrounds during break-tim ...

Hit the Stick Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization i ...

* Skully * Double Dutch * Johnny on a Pony * Boxball *

Steal the Bacon Steal the bacon (also steal the flingsock, steal the handkerchief, Dog and the Bone, or in India Rumal Jhapatta) is a tag-based traditional children's game, in which teams try to steal a flag or other item (the "bacon") from the field without bein ...

* Ace-King-Queen *

Red Rover Red Rover (also known as The King's Run and Forcing the City Gates) is a team game played primarily by children on playgrounds, requiring 10+ players. The game has changed over several decades, evolving from a regular "running across" game, wit ...

Off the Wall ''Off the Wall'' is the fifth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on August 10, 1979, by Epic Records. It was Jackson's first album released through Epic Records, the label he recorded under until his death in 2009, and t ...

Box Baseball A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

References

External links

* * {{Official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20161026213514/http://www.newyorkstreetgames.com/home.html 2010 films 2010 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about New York City Children's games Street games 2010s English-language films 2010s American films