In 2011 a major earthquake hit Christchurch in New Zealand, severely damaging its infrastructure and killing just under 200 people. It is a hard event to find an upside to, or indeed where you would really look for an upside but in the case of this film that is kind of what it does. The film joins a couple of homeless men who are examples of the bigger picture of people who had been living under bridges or under any sort of cover they could get on the streets – the number of deserted buildings (hotels to homes) has meant that suddenly they find themselves able to get into these places and live and sleep undisturbed.
It is interesting because it is something I would not have realized is going on were it not for the film. It is also a subject that conflicts me because on one hand it is good that people are in shelter but then on the flip side it is hard not to think about the downside of this upside. This is that these buildings belong to others – others who work for them, pay for them, maintain them and are now trying to piece their lives together; in addition to this, we have people who are living in buildings which are structurally condemned and deemed not safe for others to live in - as one who thinks that a society should try to look after the most needy members, I recognize the failure that has led them here, but at the same time is this a good thing? That their homes might kill them?
I don't know but I wanted to, and would like a longer version of the film that explored it more. For sure in this short they had only 3 minutes to fit the mould of the Loading Docs series of films and they did get some great characters in this small time, but I would have really like to hear more from them and understand the bigger picture issues better. I accepted the limits of the time, but for me the tone of the short suggested that even with more time it would have been the same; I'm not sure that the jovial, upbeat tone to the film really helped it because, while it is understandable it didn't cover some negative aspects of this, the tone and music suggested it thinks there are none.
It is still an engaging and well filmed documentary that gives an insight to a world we don't see or know, but tonally I'm not totally sure it was well judged.
