There were some dubious aspects as to the direction this film would go from the outset - the priviledged Vancouver kid trying to experience homelessness, the naive pre-dispositions about homelessness he has goig in, and what he's about to find out by experiencing things first hand. He vows to stay on the street for 31 days, though in truth he can bow out and end the experiment any time he wants.
There's a few good things about this film - you see some footage with real people that illuminates what it's like to use the shelter system, and many reasons there are (especially health and basic safety) for people to prefer living on the streets.
In the end, the big, overriding idea the kid comes up with is that "addiction" is the number one, over-all common denominator for the homeless, and that if addiction is not addressed they'll be no solution for homelessness. Wow..huge insight that addiction and homelessness are linked. The question is...what are the root causes of addiction for all of us as a society? The film points out, although briefly, that we are a society addicted to oil, addicted to consummerism in a way that is ultimately as self-destructive and unsustainable as a drug addiction, but even worse - we're destroying the planet because of it. We pass the buck off on the homeless and drug addicted. But the film misses the mark in not developing that idea further.
In the end this film fails, and no one privileged is really going to learn anything new from it, (much like the guy who made it) it will just reinforce their already privilege-biased views on the subject. -MR.
There's a few good things about this film - you see some footage with real people that illuminates what it's like to use the shelter system, and many reasons there are (especially health and basic safety) for people to prefer living on the streets.
In the end, the big, overriding idea the kid comes up with is that "addiction" is the number one, over-all common denominator for the homeless, and that if addiction is not addressed they'll be no solution for homelessness. Wow..huge insight that addiction and homelessness are linked. The question is...what are the root causes of addiction for all of us as a society? The film points out, although briefly, that we are a society addicted to oil, addicted to consummerism in a way that is ultimately as self-destructive and unsustainable as a drug addiction, but even worse - we're destroying the planet because of it. We pass the buck off on the homeless and drug addicted. But the film misses the mark in not developing that idea further.
In the end this film fails, and no one privileged is really going to learn anything new from it, (much like the guy who made it) it will just reinforce their already privilege-biased views on the subject. -MR.