Kids, the hotly debated film about underage teenagers, casual drugs, and even more casual sex, should be required viewing for the House and Senate conferees who will shortly decide the fate of the National Endowment for the Arts. The movie and the story of its director, Larry Clark, help explain why government funding of the late-20th-century art world produces so much public consternation.

In the 1970s, Clark received an NEA grant of $ 5,000 following publication of Tulsa, a collection of photographs featuring underage teenagers in various stages of nudity, shooting and sniffng ampheramines and other substances. Clark himself, then in his 20s, appeared in one of the photographs, eyes closed in a drug-induced stupor.