Film & Panel: Overcoming Homelessness

A double film screening of “Time Out of Mind” and “Inocente” with a panel discussion from local experts on the topics of poverty, homelessness, and race.

• Inocente : A winner at the recent San Antonio Film Festival, this documentary is 40 minutes long, and is about a 15-year-old girl in San Diego who is homeless, but also attends school and dazzles with her artistic skill. In the filmmaker’s words, this film “is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America, children.” Details at the link

• Time Out of Mind: Time Out of Mind, from Academy Award nominated writer/director Oren Moverman (The Messenger, Rampart), is a haunting look at life on the streets immersing viewers in one man’s daily quest to survive. Richard Gere delivers a soul-baring performance as George, a man whose struggle to find food and a place to sleep in New York City is beautifully captured with remarkable realism and heartrending compassion. Shuffled into the unforgiving bureaucracy of a men’s shelter, George seems destined to wind up as just another lost soul swallowed up by the system—until he meets a gregarious, down-and-out ex-jazzman (played by Broadway legend Ben Vereen) who inspires George to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Jena Malone). Cinematically stunning and shot in an eloquently observational style, Time Out of Mind is an unforgettable plunge into a world that is all too easily overlooked.