“There, but by the grace
of God, go I,” is a familiar prayer … often uttered as the windows are rolled
up and the doors locked as one encounters a group of homeless. It is easy to forget that they are people,
with names and faces, who once had hopes, families and dreams.
In documentary filmmaker Thomas
Napper’s Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home, due out on DVD from Cinema
Libre on Mar. 19, eight of the homeless who reside on the streets of Los
Angeles have their names and stories put with those faces of despair. Narration is by Catherine Keener.
Within this structure of
introducing us to the broken (almost always by drugs or mental illness … or
both) Napper weaves in a history of the long-standing area just to the east of
downtown Los Angeles between 3rd and 7th and bounded by
Main on the west and Alameda to the east.
The film can serve as a
call to action or as a reminder that these too are people. Or simply as a history of what is past is
future … economic pressures and social failings seem to create an endless
stream of new Skid Row citizens regardless of today or 80 years ago.
No matter what you take
away from viewing Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home it does get you to thinking …
and that’s a good first step.
To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and
Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report
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