Distributed by Fanlight Productions.
To purchase or rent this video, visit www.fanlight.com/catalog/films/198_ah.shtml.
Synopsis:
Almost Home is a raw and intimate look at the lives of children in a homeless shelter. Nine-year-old Ranier and eleven-year-old Frank dream of living in castles and taking karate lessons; in reality they live in an uncertain world where walking to school means enduring taunts from classmates and worrying about gunfire.
Ranier has witnessed his father being shot and worries daily about his family; Frank grows increasingly angry as he navigates his way through the shelter, the streets and his school. At the center of the children's world is "Big Dave", a recreation counselor who teaches them friendship, courage and self-respect.
Almost Home brings the viewers past the front security desk and into the facility's hallways and basements. Narrated by the children themselves, the film has been used as a training tool for students, teachers, social service professionals, and volunteers. Producer/Director Cynthia Wade ran family and children's programs in homeless shelters from 1990 to 1997, and the result is a raw and unsentimental look at how homelessness effects its youngest victims.
Festivals and Awards:
Silver Apple Award, National Educational Media Network (1996)
Best Educational Video, Access Awards (1996)
Special Recognition, Documentary Category, Main Street Film Festival (1996)
Certificate of Merit, Movies on a Shoestring (1996)
New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (1996)
Three Rivers Arts Festival (1996)
First Glance 2: Philadelphia Film and Video Festival (1996)
Northampton Film Festival (1996)
Review Highlights:
"I recently used Almost Home at a staff development workshop for school psychologists, social workers and guidance counselors. It was the most powerful part of the program. The words of the children speak volumes."
Nancy Winkler, Education Consultant, The
Homeless Education Support Program,
New Ground, Inc.
"For our high school and college students volunteering with homeless individuals, Almost Home provides a gripping introduction to the lives of children in the shelter system. In YSOP's thirteen years of service workcamps, this is one of the best films we've seen for stimulating discussions."
Edward Doty, Executive Director
Youth Service Opportunities Project (YSOP)
"Almost Home is an ideal tool for training and sensitizing volunteers to the realities of family life in transitional housing. It is an invaluable educational tool."
Suzanne Immerman,
Program Development Director
New York Cares
"Almost Home is the most effective orientation tool addressing homelessness that I have encountered."
James Courtney, Executive Director
Genesis Apartments at Union Square
Images may not be reproduced without the expressed written consent
of Cynthia Wade/Red Hen Productions.
If you arrived at this page from another site, click here to visit to CynthiaWade.com .