Social Justice (Documentary)

Documenting for Social Justice

Homeless activist and co-founder of First They Came For The Homeless, Mike Zint, delivering one of his many powerful insights into the crisis in leadership.

A production still of Gwen Austin, Communit y Builder and Organizer for B.O.S.S, taken during the filming of HOMELESS IN BERKLAND

Behind-the-scenes still of Gwen Austin, Community Builder and Organizer for B.O.S.S, taken during the filming of Homeless in Berkland.

A production still from the filming of HOMELESS IN BERKLAND

A production still of shelter coordinator, Todd Bertani, during the filming of Homeless in Berkland.

A production still outsid People's Park in Berkeley, CA, taken during the making of Homeless in Berkland

A production still outside People's Park in Berkeley, CA, taken during the making of Homeless in Berkland.

In October 2017, I set out to make a documentary film about homelessness in the cities of Berkeley and Oakland. The result was a 108 minute film titled HOMELESS in BERKLAND. I interviewed city mayors, council members, service providers, activists and people without a home for this film. It aired on channel 33 of Berkeley Comcast, during the holiday season that year. Since then, I have collaborated with concerned Berkeley residents on other documentary shorts (as editor) and we helped shed light on issues of governance and the criminalizing of the poor in our city. This includes this film, Permanent Displacement, which highlights the challenges faced by Berkeley's homeless population who are constantly being deracinated, making their efforts to get off the streets even more difficult. In June 2018, Consider The Homeless, a not-for-profit organization, held a fundraiser showing these documentary shorts, along with a re-edited version of HOMELESS in BERKLAND, reduced to 55 minutes, under the title HOMELESS: THE STORY OF AMERICA'S REFUGEES. These productions are available for public access. They are free for you to exhibit for your own fundraisers or events, or to use in part or in full, with attribution, in your own projects.

Mayor Libby Schaaf expresses distress over the "moral travesity" of homelessness in her city of Oakland.

Mayor Jesse Arreguin, sharing personal & city goals for addressing homelessness in Berkeley.

And here I am (left) outside the Berkeley Community Media Resource Center, with camera, lighting kit and tripod, getting ready

to go to the next location.