Movies: Homelessness

Inspired by real stories, a young pastor, through a harsh winter in a small Texas town, follows his mission to help the homeless is faced with resistance by his congregation, exposing deep-seated prejudices and systemic failures....

This film not only lays bare the brutal realities that people experiencing homelessness face, but also highlights the true value of Crisis and its services in helping people out of homelessness....

THE DEPARTMENT is a feature documentary which takes us inside the never-before-seen child protection system at work in NSW. Filmed in an observational style, it follows caseworkers across the state as they navigate the complexities of keeping childre...

A woman arrives in Paris with her little girl to look for work. With limited funds and no luck, they end up penniless, homeless and dependent on the rare kindness of strangers....

Mariem, 53, a former estate agent, has been living at a shelter for several months. Surrounded by women in far more precarious circumstances than herself, she tries to regard her unprecedented social downfall as an immersion in real life. By the time...

Mali - Algeria - Libya - Italy. Issa’s escape from West Africa to the European mainland lasted ten years. Everything was supposed to be better here. But when he arrived in Rome, the only thing waiting for the young man was a life of homelessness and ...

This documentary portrays the front-line street workers who serve the needy under the umbrella of the Salvation Army. Shot in Toronto at Christmastime, the film chronicles the small hopes and tiny victories of life lived below the poverty line and th...

This feature-length documentary by Alanis Obomsawin examines the plight of Native people who come to Montreal searching for jobs and a better life. Often arriving without money, friends or jobs, a number of them quickly become part of the homeless po...

From her childhood, Nadia felt responsible for her mentally disturbed and recently homeless mother, Irene. For a while Nadia had cut off all contact with Irene and tried to live her life, until Irene suddenly appears drunk at the wedding of her son, ...

In the spring of 2018, the filmmaker Maria Petschnig befriended Marc who at that time was living in his car in Brooklyn for more than a year, while also holding a day job. Petschnig started to record his life and struggle, his thoughts, routines, etc...

Community First! Village is designed to lift the chronically homeless off the streets of the Austin, TX, offering them a place to call home, helping them to heal from the ravages of life on the streets, and allowing them to rediscover a purpose in th...

In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, a group of friends lives on the streets. They call themselves the Freetown Streetboys, even though there are some women among them as well. Suley, Lama, David, Alfred, Shero and Sarah have all faced enormous ...

Through the eyes of a young drifter who rejects society's rules and intentionally chooses to live on the streets, Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang explores the meaning of personal freedom – and its limits....

On June 13, 1978, the punk bands the Cramps and the Mutants played a free show for psychiatric patients at the Napa State Hospital in California. We Were There to Be There chronicles the people, politics, and cultural currents that led to the show an...

A seedy downtown bar on a quiet Sunday morning becomes a battleground for Armageddon, when a batch of bad booze contaminates the alcohol supply of the local drunks. Carrying a mutated worm, the tainted tequila infects all who drink it, swiftly turnin...

Two roommates (Homar and Travis) face eviction if they can't pay their already past-due rent. On their search for a job, they discover an opportunity to pitch a movie and win big. Homar comes up with a brilliant idea, birthing the iconic character of...

A gothic tale of mysticism and violent crime. Two women go out into the fringe of rural culture to seek a revelation. They get trapped in a fierce place, and one murders a man with an ax after she has a vision that he is an evil thing....

'Boykee' is a drug addict from the streets of Rotterdam, who manages to get himself into some serious trouble and he' s looking for a way out. Lea, a troubled young woman, might offer Boykee the escape he desires....

Award-winning documentary maker Bryan Bruce investigates New Zealand's housing crisis and what might be done to solve it. Bruce consults with recognised world experts (in Canada, Ireland and Germany) to discuss their global research – this time on f...

After quitting her stable but soul-crushing job, Leigh passes her days in an apathetic fog until she decides to volunteer at a soup kitchen. There she meets Ethan, a homeless man with whom she begins an electric, but turbulent affair....