Why Not Watch?
Don’t worry world! We always support watching documentaries legally and many of the films we recommend on Influence Film Club are available where you live too. We suggest using your preferred method for watching a film – such as searching iTunes, Amazon, Netflix, VOD platforms (video-on-demand), or renting/buying a DVD.
Find out more about starting a film club!
Through haunting images, intimate scenes, and first-person narratives, THE HOMESTRETCH follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school, graduate, and build a future, offering a powerful, original perspective on what it means to be young, homeless, and building a feasible future in 21st century America.
Director: Anne de Mare, Kirsten Kelly
Share this film. Give others the chance to learn from its story.
Find out if there is a community network for homeless youth in the area where you live and find out how you can best offer your support.
Consider giving to the cause of the National Alliance to End Homelessness is a leading voice on federal homelessness policy and educates opinion leaders on the real facts affecting the homeless.
Donate directly to the future of Roque, Kasey, and Anthony, by going to Rally – All donations will go towards education and job training.
Find out more about DePaul International – a coalition of agencies around the world working to address the issues surrounding homelessness.
“We were committed to spending a long period of time with these young people to get a deeper story. The relationships that we forged with them can only be built over time.” Indie Outlook spoke with the filmmaking duo about their longtime collaboration, the cathartic power of theatre and the misleading stereotypes they hope their film will shatter for good.
Read the full interview on Indie Outlook.
Find out more on First Focus.
The Chicago Reporter sat down with Roque Sanchez.
“Today, Jorge and Oscar are both 18, with no family to house them and no criminal histories that would warrant a transfer to a detention facility. They arrived in June at Solid Ground, a nonprofit youth homeless shelter in Humboldt Park, where they will most likely remain until a decision is made on their applications for immigration relief. The process can take years.”
Continue reading on The New York Times.
“It’s no news that a large portion of our federal tax dollars goes towards defense spending. But your jaw might drop at the cost of the newest jet manufactured by the U.S. military, and just how much good could have been achieved domestically with the same price tag.”
Read the full article on The Huffington Post.
“Homelessness is far from a developing country’s problem. In Europe alone, there are 3 million people on the streets. In Australia and Canada, hundreds of thousands of people are homeless. In total, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights estimates that the world has 100 million homeless people.”
Continue reading here.
“When the sun dips below the Rocky Mountains and the streets of Denver go dark, Lokki, his girlfriend Magic and their friend Tripp head home. They climb in between the rafters of a highway overpass, crouching as they sit under the concrete structure that rumbles with every car that crosses overhead.
It is where they will sleep tonight.”
Read the full article on CNN.
"ENGAGING and COMPELLING"
Roger Ebert.com
"A film filled with IMMENSE POWER."
The Examiner
