Homecoming

I had a chance to view "Homecoming" at the Sacramento International Film Festival, and I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. I tend to enjoy watching documentaries and the like, but my tastes tend to run towards either historical military documentaries and those on wildlife. With this film's subject matter being on America's orphanages I wasn't sure that be overly interested in the film. I was, however, very pleasantly surprised. Not only was the film poignant and touching, it had a good balance of humor to keep it from feeling oppressive. The editing and sound were professionally done and served to enhance the film, never distracting from it. For anyone who has ever wondered about what it may have been like growing up in the orphanages of America, I *highly* recommend this film.

Yesterday, when I watched Homecoming: The Forgotten World of America's Orphanages, it kept bringing tears to my eyes, sometimes enough to spill over and run down my face. So many of the images in it evoked my time as a four- to seven-year-old "economic dependent" at Hephzibah Home in Oak Park, Illinois, from 1934 to 1937, which were the best years of my own childhood. Beautifully shot, Homecoming focuses on compelling testimonies by a number of accomplished adults who attribute their successes in life at least in part to their upbringing in "families" of fellow orphans. Mildly tendentious if at all, it makes a powerful case in favor of group homes if not old-fashioned orphanages of a kind that have all but disappeared.