Lead Me Home

I was really hoping to hear more about the lives of the people that they interviewed for this film. It felt like they sort of just brushed the surface with everything they asked and what they showed from these people's lives. The people they chose to interview are very interesting, but we only get to hear a few things about them throughout the film and I never really felt like we truly got to know them and what they experience. While this was interesting and entertaining enough, I just felt like they could have done so much more with it. Less long camera shots with music playing and more in depth character study of these people who are dealing with homelessness could have made this so much better.

This a very serious topic that I was very happy to see someone made a documentary on. However, it was a really terrible "film." It's like someone got a drone and a right to some good music, and made a 40 minute trailer/montage.

It was so disjointed with zero depth. They even had some great stories in front of them, but didn't follow any of them in any coherent way. What's worse, there was zero exploration of the causes or what can be done.

It was like a trailer for a more in depth documentary series where they dive into the situation, but there isn't a series. It's just this. I genuinely don't know if this helps or hurts the problem of homelessness.

This short provides an impressionistic take on the challenges of homelessness on the West Coast. It's a well done-cinematically-panoramic view of the issue. It focuses on several persons and treats their story with dignity. It also hints at or states some causes of homelessness as well as ways we are trying to tackle the problem. But it isn't very insightful.

I think the film could have been vastly improved by either cutting it down by 20 minutes-the overall artistic point is conveyed in that amount of time. Or they could have fleshed this out into a feature by getting some historical context and expert interviews. As it is now it is too shallow for its runtime.

Other reviewers criticised the lack of depth or storytelling. For me, that was the beauty of this documentary. It was an honest example of the huge difficulty that faces people who are homeless, and the community workers trying to provide support. Solutions are rarely easy and we are often left with many questions to be answered and unmet needs. Perhaps those who didn't like the doco were left feeling like the situation wasn't resolved. Perhaps that was the point. An extra 20 minutes sharing the interviewees solutions to the crisis would have made it a 10.

This was an interesting look into homelessness. It doesn't glamorise or glorify it. It shows it's hard and cruel. Once again it shows that people are just people and that bad things happen to anyone.

It humanises them.