On its surface, this 74-minute documentary could be summed up as stories from Los Angeles’ infamous Skid Row. But, filmmaker Rachel Fleischer doesn’t just make this an objective look at the homeless men and women struggling to survive. Fleischer involves herself and more than befriends the various homeless people she encounters.
From helping one homeless woman to get her medicine to taking another homeless man to rehab, Fleischer is not merely an observer. She’s a participant. Understandably, it’s difficult to watch people suffer and not lend a hand, but that’s the dilemma she faces. The dilemma not only lies with a filmmaker trying to remain objective and unobtrusive in the quest to tell her subject’s story honestly and with no bias. It also lies with a human trying not to be so compassionate as to coddle and prevent these homeless people, some of whom are drug-addicted, from standing on their own two feet.
Fleischer delicately navigates that dilemma and those waters for four years. One homeless man in particular is Mike Rodriguez whose ups and downs, recoveries and relapses, overwhelm Fleischer, as she attempts to help him while at the same time not get sucked into his spiral.
