Getting people to leave their homes on the opening night of
the much-awaited fall television season is no easy task, especially to see a
documentary about women and children without homes. But close to 300 people
came from near and far to watch on the edge, our documentary film
in the Naperville Independent Film Festival screened
Monday, 9/19, at the venerable Ogden 6 Theater.
Watching the crowd amass was exciting, especially because it
was a mixture of people I knew from my days prior to my running the PADS
shelter at Hesed House and a considerable slew of folks who responded to Bridge Community’s urging for people to see our award-winning documentary. Having screened our
year-old film countless times, I could judge the audience’s engagement by their
chuckles, their silence, and their palpable angst as the 7 courageous women in
this film shared their heart-wrenching stories of traversing in and out of
homelessness.
The opportunity to participate in Naperville's festival was an unplanned opportunity—Glessna and Edmond Coisson attended
our HEAR US Inc. tribute to Mary Lou Cowlishaw
last October at North Central College. The tribute included the premiere
screening of on the edge and
resulted in the Coisson’s inviting our film’s director, Laura
Vazquez, associate professor of communication at Northern Illinois
University, to the festival.
One key reason for the record crowd at the delightfully
friendly and refurbished Ogden 6 theater was the push by Bridge Communities to
have their current and prospective volunteers and supporters attend prior to
their ambitious “Sleep Out
Saturday” this year set for Nov. 5th. Bridge leaders rightly
figure if more people understand homelessness from homeless families' point of view,
compassion and action will ensue.
With what seems to be a growing discord about the need to
help families and individuals struggling for survival, the crowd at this film
was on the far opposite end of the spectrum. My challenge urging them to
participate in a “compassion epidemic” brought cheers instead of jeers. This
positive energy gives a huge boost to those of us engaged in helping stave off the
devastation of homelessness. My Naperville-based nonprofit organization, HEAR
US Inc., continues to give voice and visibility to homeless children and youth
through projects like on the edge.
Little did I know that in November 2005 when I left the
Naperville border heading out on my unconventional sojourn—to chronicle faces
and voices of homeless kids from across the nation for My Own Four Walls—that
I’d be heading out for my 7th cross-country trip and our country
would be in an economic quagmire that makes previous times of trouble pale. With
the child poverty rate at a record high 22%, dark clouds loom on the horizon,
especially for homeless families with toddlers, the subject of our new film, Littlest
Nomads (in production).
My journey away from DuPage County begins Monday. Starting
tomorrow I’ll be sporting new signage on my road-weary motorhome/office thanks
to a generous collaboration with Design
Resource Center and FastSigns,
both Naperville businesses with a track record of benevolence. I’ll be
venturing out to share a message of painful reality—soaring family homelessness
at a time of conflicting political will—but I will recall the surge of
compassion from the crowd that stepped from their comfort zones and comfortable
homes to learn from these seven experts on homelessness. It’s better than an
Oscar!
# # #
