Lead Me Home

An interesting insight into several homeless communities around the USA. We follow several homeless people, but never really get to know any of them or follow them for a while. What's left is a superficial documentary with just a few too many drone shots and time lapses.

Homelessness is such a serious problem in our country that I got very excited to see an Oscar nominated documentary on the subject. We live in a country where the media sees more value in billionaires going to space than helping out the homeless. The issue here is the film just needed to be more focused.

The start of the film begins as a "humans of New York" style interviews of homeless people. The stories are gripping and powerful , and the film abandons this. Then we get a day in the life of someone.. and the film abandons this idea pretty quickly. It touches very briefly on the political aspect of the issue but doesn't really go into much depth. All of these pieces could have been so fascinating but none are explored to any real satisfaction.

I think it's an interesting watch but maybe should be a mini series or longer movie.

Other reviewers criticised the lack of depth or storytelling. For me, that was the beauty of this documentary. It was an honest example of the huge difficulty that faces people who are homeless, and the community workers trying to provide support. Solutions are rarely easy and we are often left with many questions to be answered and unmet needs. Perhaps those who didn't like the doco were left feeling like the situation wasn't resolved. Perhaps that was the point. An extra 20 minutes sharing the interviewees solutions to the crisis would have made it a 10.

" In the darkness before the dawn In the swirling of this storm When I'm rolling with the punches and hope is gone Leave a light, a light on..."

• Coldplay's Midnight

'Should I feed my kids or pay rent!!" The choice is clear but why they are forced to make that decision? And this is a story of only only 31 sites in just one city in this developed and affluent nation .... Beneath the glitters and ritzy chichi exterior of a mega US city lies a scattered swamp of juxtaposition that unfortunately is a part of this humanity. In a given night, more than half-a-million people in this country face homelessness which is 17 of every 10,000 people ...this number is already exacerbated in recent years esp due to pandemic and is expected to rise... . Of the homeless people, 40% are African Americans and 20% are kids! The poignant stories that would tear up your eyes...However, it is too short and fails to shed light on the issue on a more efficacious way.

This short provides an impressionistic take on the challenges of homelessness on the West Coast. It's a well done-cinematically-panoramic view of the issue. It focuses on several persons and treats their story with dignity. It also hints at or states some causes of homelessness as well as ways we are trying to tackle the problem. But it isn't very insightful.

I think the film could have been vastly improved by either cutting it down by 20 minutes-the overall artistic point is conveyed in that amount of time. Or they could have fleshed this out into a feature by getting some historical context and expert interviews. As it is now it is too shallow for its runtime.