Homelessness could happen to anyone, they say. You’re only two pay cheques from the street. These things never felt more true than watching this documentary narrated by Colin Firth. Its director Lorna Tucker has her own story of homelessness: when she was 15, she ran away from home and ended up in London on the streets. There’s old home movie footage of her as a little girl; how did this sunny seven-year-old eating Hula Hoops from her fingers end up sleeping rough, addicted to heroin, just a few years later?
Tucker tells her story; she is honest and open, allowing herself to be extremely vulnerable, and interviews other people who’ve experienced homelessness. There’s Earl Charlton in the north-east, who was on and off the streets for 18 years; he’s now a caseworker for a homeless charity. Charlton breaks down remembering his first day at work – starting a new life that must have previously seemed impossible. In London, Tucker speaks to homeless women in daily danger of violence and abuse. The thread running through their stories is childhood trauma – growing up with domestic violence, neglect, alcohol or substance misuse.
As the Big Issue founder John Bird says, brilliantly blunt: “The problem isn’t the homelessness, it’s all the other shit.” He talks about the need to tackle homelessness holistically, to deal with mental health. Bird has lived experience of homelessness; he’s also one of the policymakers and campaigners Tucker interviews. Sitting there, biro leaking over his shirt pocket, Bird points out that everyone loves the idea of him: the ex-homeless ex-offender who turned his life around. But few employers would give the time of day to a young man in his position back then.
It is a heartbreaking but hopeful film – with the message that homelessness is a solvable problem. And with her painful, powerful interviews, Tucker works a kind of empathy miracle. Maybe it’s the questions she asks. Or the way she is there, not peering in, but eye level with her subjects, not talking to them as victims, but people with pasts and – fingers crossed – futures.
• Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son is released on 16 February in UK and Irish cinemas.
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