Native son film director Barry Levinson has watched the past few days unfold with a heavy heart, as violence over the death of Freddie Gray has torn apart sections of the city he so lovingly chronicled in such films as "Diner," "Avalon" and "Liberty Heights."
But still, he found occasion to take heart.
"I was amazed at the level of bravery," he said over the phone from New York. "You've seen some of these people stand up to these large crowds and saying 'Go home,' 'You can't do this,' talking to them and everything else.
"It's a frightening situation when you have an angry mob," he says. "And to actually stand up and say, 'We can't accept this, go home' – I mean, there were some very brave people who took to the streets."
Levinson, who lived until age 6 in West Baltimore, just off of North Avenue, said the violence and destruction of the past few days points out the country's failure to deal with the stifling poverty afflicting cities like Baltimore.
"That's not to condone what took place," he stressed. "But there have been constant people who said this level of poverty is unacceptable, we have to do better. We have to educate better, we have to do a better job in terms of our society. We can't just allow this to be the thing we don't talk about. You can't have something that is this out of whack."
Noting that his 1999 movie, "Liberty Heights," dealt in part with issues of segregation and race and ethnic segregation in 1954 Baltimore, Levinson said it was sobering to realize that, in some ways, things haven't improved much in over half-a-century.
"There were those issues then, and there have been certain improvements in terms of race over the years," he said. "But at the same time, poverty is not getting better. I don't know that statistics, but it's not improving. And you can't have that many people in this country living below the poverty line. It's just not acceptable."
Late Tuesday afternoon, Levinson took a break from working on his latest movie -- "Rock the Kasbah," starring Bill Murray, Kate Hudson, Bruce Willis and Zooey Deschanel -- to say he was glad to see that the day, to that point, had been largely quiet.
"What's great about it is, the people are controlling the streets," he said. "The voice of reason out on the streets is taking over."