User Reviews

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.

I understand why people would think this is narcissistic and not showing the problem properly, but you can't expect that. As a whole the film gave me a better sense of the world of the homeless than I know how to find anywhere else. What I understand better is the curiosity to know what homelessness actually is like and understand where it comes from. I have no idea where to find this kind of information so I'm glad this guy went out and saw that world from his specific perspective. Of course there is more to the problem and of it's not a cinematic masterpiece, but you can't expect that from a regular guy like him. Also, it's not as if this one month of using the homeless facilities is going to change anything in the bigger picture. I can't blame him of doing anything bad before I find a better way of learning about this problem.

Created an account just to vent for the last 10 wasted minutes of my life. I watched two parts of this intensely self obsessed manchild's 'documentary' on youtube and all I can say is I'm disgusted by his lack of any understanding whatsoever of the situation in Vancouver. His acting shows the worldview of a 9-year old child, and while the viewer is exposed to some of the shelters and 'behind the scenes' footage of life as a homeless person in the DTES, it all seems done only to support this dude's overblown ego. Unfortunately this piece of garbage remains at the top of google searches for 'Vancouver Homeless Documentary' (somehow), and anyone wanting to learn about the issue will be unpleasantly surprised when they see this.

Would love it if he could attempt to right his wrongs by removing this offensive material from Youtube, IMDb, and all physical copies of the film in his parents' westside basement.

I'm giving this a 10 because of the sheer courage involved in the making of this documentary. I'm from Vancouver and have lived here most of my life, and I'm from an upper-middle class family, like the guy in the movie. Like him, I see homeless people on the streets every single day and I feel frustrated and impotent about the problem. The black-and-white contrast between Vancouver's so-called "best city in the world" status with the Downtown Eastside is appalling, to say the least.

What this documentary has done for me is given me a safe but realistic fly-on-the-wall look at the epidemic on my streets. Some may criticize this man as being a spoiled rich white kid who could have gone home anytime he wanted to, but you can't criticize him for what he has done - bringing attention to Vancouver's biggest problem.

There are three kinds of people in this world. The people who look at something and think: "Man, I would love to do that", but don't do a thing. The people who look at something and criticize it, but don't do anything or offer anything better. And then, the people who go out and DO it.

This guy went out and did it. I'm the guy who would "love" to do it, but I don't have the courage to do it.

So, this documentary and the people behind it have my respect. It's a powerful documentary and it's striking in its bare-bones approach to a decades-old problem that just seems to be getting worse every day even when the Olympic Games came around.

Any attempt at empathy was overshadowed by the narcissistic, self indulgent presentation by the narrator/main actor.

Disgusted to see such an echo chamber of what is passed as acceptable social commentary and insight about real people with real problems.

Absolutley ridiculous this movie is rated like it is. The truth is in the user comments.

I gave this film 2 extra stars because of all the fake low ratings. Almost all of those low rated scores have only rated and reviewed this film. Probably by one person who created fake accounts.

As far as the erroneous claims (made by the fake reviewers), I did not see the filmmaker be unsympathetic or unaware of mental illness. Watch it and decide for yourself.

Good job and thanks for exposing Vancouver's dark secret!

Don't support this film. It's saddening to see someone who just does not get it' try to act as though living with mental illness, and homelessness and poverty, could be easy. Zero empathy, or understanding from this film. It's truly sad.

Extremely disrespectful to people that actually need real help. Very distasteful

The movie pictures well the tough reality of the streets of the downtown east side - a neighborhood few people would dare spend a night in. The story seems a little bit improvised which helps make it more realistic. I would watch it again !

This peice of trash is an insult to the people who are surviving on the DTES. This spoiled rich kid is implying that its an easy romp, and everything is taken care of for you, free food, and shelter, valet service,etc. What you dont see is the poverty, bed bugs,police harrassment, violence, and the scourge of mental healthcare budget cuts. I wont even get into the drug deaths happening a dozen a day. I cant believe this trash was nominated for anything but Insult of the Year. It does more damage than good by implying the homeless got it easy. Just sickening. Signed....a real DTES survivor.

It gives you an insight into the world of living on the streets you'll hopefully never have to experience. The main guy is pretty brave going above and beyond to show the reality of where bad choices can take you. From beginning to end... I couldn't stop watching. I just needed to know what was going to happen next.

It's unfortunate that this has been released. But it does stand a testament to how misunderstood this epidemic is.

But yeah. Just unfortunate...

The person who made this is ignorant. This can hardly be called a documentary. It is disgusting to watch this privileged narcissist frolic around the DTES and then actually pretend that he has exposed himself to any real risk. And then he acts like he knows anything about what it's like to live that life.

If you are interested in learning anything about homelessness, drug addiction, or the DTES, talk to someone who has actually LIVED that experience. Trust me, we are here and we'd love to share our story.

All the previous reviews are in fact true. Waste of time. Someone else please make a better one.

Completely missed the mark on what should be a great and informative documentary on Vancouver's homelessness/mental health crisis which most Canadians turn a blind eye too. This man is so distasteful and couldn't have made a bigger joke out of it.

This documentary is so fake. His "meltdowns" where he was threatening to go home were so staged. He has not future in acting. Adds those bits in for dramatic effect.

It started off mildly fascinating and drops off pretty fast. After half an hour I was bored and also irritated by the guys awful acting.

Misha Kleider decided to make a documentary about the plight of Vancouver's homeless. He sets it in the context of Vancouver having been awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics and repeatedly being named one of the best cities in the world to live in. And his goal is to expose the other side of Vancouver - the 10 square block nightmare of the Downtown East Side, where homelessness, violence, drug addiction and prostitution are common. There's some value in pointing out the distinction between the two sides of Vancouver. I'm more familiar with Toronto - living only about an hour from that city - but the cities are in many ways similar. There's a lot of affluence, and there's a lot of poverty. Basically, to live in either you have to be either wealthy or poor, because the middle class is being squeezed out by the lack of affordable decent housing. But I have to confess that I also had a knee jerk negative reaction going into this. Kleider seems to be a relatively affluent white kid who thinks he'll learn about homelessness on Vancouver's Downtown East Side by pretending to be homeless on Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Not really the same thing - since Kleider could choose to call it quits anytime he wanted. And in spending his month on the streets he uses resources that could have actually been used by the real homeless. And I have to confess that I found his ultimate learning from his experience to be underwhelming to say the least - there's a strong connection between homelessness and drug addiction. I probably could have guessed that.

I was concerned by the beginning of the film - for a while it looked like it was going to be a "slam the poor" sort of film, blaming them for their own situation and suggesting (as many do) that they actually have life pretty easy. Thankfully, that seems to have been a bit of a set-up, because the tone changes dramatically once Kleider has been on the streets for a few days and really starts to see the situation closer up. He did help shed light on what to many people is a mystery - why do some homeless people choose to stay on the streets even when there are shelter beds available? Turns out Kleider learned that in a lot of ways (especially health-wise) the streets are actually safer than the shelters. Point taken. And there really is no simple answer to the problem of homelessness - the point made by an interview he had with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who took office with a promise to end homelessness and then - like so many politicians who make grandiose promises - realized that he wasn't going to pull that off. Kleider also made some questionable and even disturbing choices in the course of filming. I realize he wanted to experience the plight of people living in the Downtown East Side - but actually trying crack and heroin was too extreme for my liking - and, frankly, his brother (who was doing the filming) should have walked at that point and refused to be a participant in Misha's stupidity. In doing the experimentation with heroin, mind you, he did give us a look into what's it's like in a supervised injection site. It's a controversial idea, and I can see both the pros and the cons of the concept - and what I saw here really didn't sway me to either side.

This isn't a total waste. It does point out the problem of life on the streets - and it's likely similar in all large cities, and not just Vancouver. But my gut reaction to this was simply not positive. (4/10)

Mildly interesting and could have been so much better. So much naivety throughout the film. They completely ignore mental illness as a factor in homelessness. I do give the main character credit for trying. He certainly had courage to follow through on lots of things. Still, the lack of self awareness and empathy makes this a mostly uninteresting film that misses the point.

A poorly made mockumentary. A very naive and privileged young man ignores the realities of addiction, mental illness and homelessness, and films himself trying hard drugs for fun and mocking people. Doesn't even last 30 days and learns absolutely nothing.