Inspiration
- Standing in front of her former family home, Julianna shuddered as she recounted the night she and her children escaped their increasingly brutal homefront. The unpredictable journey from a mutual military marriage to a relationship destroyed by violence gave her plenty to talk about.
- Melissa jokes about how she doesn’t sneeze because her family’s flimsy FEMA trailer will collapse. Her continued proximity to homelessness floats like the dark cloud of the hurricane that put them in this remote trailer park. The insistent cries from her son who has autism test her patience.
- With several moves behind her, including time spent on friends’ couches, Beatrice settled into her spartan digs, hoping to put her nomadic life, including stints in foster care, behind her and concentrate on finishing her LeTendre Scholarship-supported college education.
I first met these three women in 2006 as I ventured cross-country to film My Own Four Walls, the HEAR US documentary film that gives children and youth the opportunity to talk about their loss of housing. Each of them impressed me with straightforward talk about what led up to their homelessness, their grip on the present, and their focus on future hopes and dreams.
When I returned to Illinois in summer ’06, after my first 20,000 mile trip, a mutual friend connected me with Dr. Laura Vazquez, Associate Professor in Communication at Northern Illinois University. Laura looked at some of the film I shot, a total of 50 or so hours of interviews and extra footage that I wanted to magically mix into a short documentary. She agreed, and then she posed a question I’ll never forget. “What do you think about making a feature-length film about homeless families?”
Partnership
We had just met. She, the experienced documentarian, had just seen the raw beginnings of my work. I, an advocate for people experiencing homelessness, was somewhat dumbfounded. An amazing partnership was born…. Laura confided her own brush with homelessness in her 20s as a young mother who, with a baby in her arms and a mere $100 in her pocket, had to flee a deteriorated marriage and head cross-country to regroup.
With Melissa, Beatrice, and Julianna’s stories as the core of the film, we made plans to find additional compelling participants who could help provide more examples of the dynamics and costs of homelessness. I agreed to “scout” as I traveled the country again. Laura arranged her sabbatical for early 2008 and we plunged into unknown territory for me: the challenge of filming and producing a documentary to give women an opportunity to share their experiences of homelessness. With serendipity and assistance from astute McKinney-Vento liaisons, we met Angela, Antoinette, Tonya, and Nancy.
My admiration and respect for Laura grew through our collaboration. I learned from her as I sat in on her documentary classes, as we traveled and filmed together, as we sat for countless hours in the NIU Avid film editing lab, as we mused about this project. Our combined efforts complemented the project at hand. She, between teaching duties, selected frames and accounts to fill the storyboard. We hashed about vision and content, a mutually-respectful process that required a tremendous amount of time. As the project took shape, we both realized the incredible potential these stories had to enlighten, inspire and reshape the way Americans viewed families and youth without homes.
Production
Laura arranged for a preliminary screening where colleagues responded strongly and positively to the material and encouraged her to continue the arduous process of interweaving the stories from our seven subjects.
Fast forward four years. We finally settled on the name for this film, on the edge, which seemed obvious to us through our experiences with women facing and enduring homelessness. Laura’s countless hours before video screens, surrounded by spaceship-like computer equipment, with capable input from Andrew McCormick, a graduate student with a deep interest and significant experience making documentaries about homelessness, shaped the work now in final production stages.
I maintained contact with the seven women subjects. Their stories, far from static, added challenges to our production process as we tried to capture more than a single week or day of the women's lives. For instance, we temporarily lost touch with one participant, as her mobility and inability to communicate made us worry about her on all sorts of levels. After getting to know the women so well, it was excruciating to cut important episodes and stories about their struggles from the final version of the film.
Editing lab decisions were made to portray each woman as honestly as possible, complete with foibles and failures. We did not want to glorify them, nor did we want to vilify them. The interviews themselves bespeak heartfelt sincerity mingled with anxiety and hope for a more stable future.
Screening
My 2009-10 cross-country trek included a daunting task: to screen on the edge with these seven courageous women. Would they be comfortable with our portrayal of their stories? It was reassuring when each woman endorsed and encouraged our work. Test audiences of people familiar with homelessness and those far removed from it validated our treatment of this issue. Supporters came forth and the final pieces are falling in place. With luck, on the edge will be available for premiere screening, perhaps in time for the NAEHCY conference in Houston November 6-9, 2010. DVDs will be available for purchase, probably early 2011, through HEAR US and possibly other outlets.
Outlook
One promising use of this film may be university-level social work and education programs. With a dearth of materials on family/youth homelessness, on the edge can fill this gap in knowledge and understanding. HEAR US will develop ancillary materials to enhance viewing experiences.
The lives of the seven on the edge women continue to rotate around past experiences, present realities and future dreams. Their spirited contribution to a greater understanding of homelessness is and will continue to be significant. With their unwavering faith in this four-year process bolstering us, Laura and I can only hope that our determined effort to get this film seen by as many people possible will be realized.
At the 22nd Annual Conference, you can hear directly from the parents highlighted in this film during an afternoon concurrent session on Monday, November 8, 2010. They will share their experiences with homelessness and how they managed to work with schools to ensure the academic success of their children. The film will be screened that evening, following the NAEHCY Annual Membership meeting.
For more information, visit the Hear Us web site, email Diane Nilan or Laura Vazquez.
