Word: homelessness
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...weekend when the top three films boasted African or African-American protagonists, two true-life sports inspirationals took the runner-up slots. The Blind Side, the story of a homeless black teenager who becomes a football star after being adopted by a white woman and her family, continued its run as the season's from-nowhere hit. Made for less than $30 million, the sturdy Sandra Bullock star vehicle took in $15.5 million, and after just 24 days has topped the $150 million mark in domestic receipts. Following a movie about football was one about rugby: Clint Eastwood's South...
John Lee Hancock's movie, based on the Michael Lewis nonfiction best seller, is about Michael Oher, a homeless black teenager who was adopted by a white couple and, after many a challenge, became a star tackle at the University of Mississippi. (Today, Oher is an acclaimed rookie for the Baltimore Ravens.) A true story that sounds like it's the most improbable type of uplifting fiction, The Blind Side could have been one of the dozens of sports inspirationals that reach their core audiences, moisten many eyes and retire quickly to the DVD shelves. Yet it's obviously connecting...
...about a reporter who pretends to be Jewish while reporting a story on anti-Semitism, one of the film's crew was asked what the moral was. "Be nice to Jews," he said, "because they might turn out to be Gentiles." The Blind Side says to be nice to homeless black kids because they could become NFL stars. Whether they want to or not. Michael certainly gets a warm bed, lots of food and familial affection from the Tuohys; they gave him a purpose-driven life. But it's their purpose. They drove him there. Michael is like the docile...
...Stranded Fish," homeless, starving former freedom fighter Idulfitri wanders by lusty foreign-movie posters with "naked thighs" on Merdeka Square near the Presidential Palace and wonders, "Why aren't there any pictures showing how hunger twists and turns in my guts?" The rest of the story is a picture precisely of that, as Idulfitri engages in Godot-like banter with a fellow revolutionary turned rake while they scrounge for a meal. Eventually they sell a monitor-lizard-skin wallet to a hawker on South Gambir Street (now Jalan Medan Merdeka Selatan, home to banks and the U.S. embassy) for satay...
This was back in 2003, when I was working with a nonprofit in Arizona to secure transitional employment for homeless men. One job involved helping businesses in downtown Tucson recycle. Our workers would drive around, collecting recycling and interacting with shop owners, and in the process, businesses started asking if we could make use of such things as old computers and desks...