Films to keep homeless issue on screen and in mind

There is a bitter sweet paradox to be found outside the Oasis Youth Centre at 365 Crown Street, Surry Hills. A baby giggles as a young woman in a Twilight t-shirt leans over the pram, making kissing noises. A male youth looks on smiling, taking long swigs from a bottle wrapped in brown paper. The two teenagers are a world away from Hollywood, but they may just inspire one high schooler’s own Bella and Edward as secondary school students across Australia are encouraged to enter a three minute creation into the Homeless Short Film Competition, running from 6 April to September 16.

The winner will be presented $7000 by competition patron, Cate Blanchett, while the 15 finalists will be screened by the Sydney Theatre Company later this year. The initiative is the brainchild of Ian Darling, producer of the AFI award winning 2008 documentary, The Oasis, a documentary filmed two years ago that centred on the experiences of teenagers at the Surry Hills centre.

“We filmed over two years so the audience could witness the shifts in the behaviour of these young people,” said Darling. “No one is beyond redemption, that’s something you couldn’t show over two months.”

The Oasis also entered the nationwide educational curriculum this year as part of a campaign by the Caledonia Foundation of which Darling is the chair.

“We’ve been trying to come up with a new film or initiative every year to keep the issue of homeless on the agenda,” he said. “This year it’s been the launch of the film as a teaching resource and the competition.”

“A lot of comments are heard that this is their fault,” said Darling. “The kids are seen as drug addicts and losers rather than asking what caused them to be homeless. When you come across girls who were abused at 12 and were compelled to run away, and the option of being on the streets was better at home… that’s not a choice. There is a lack of understanding. So many people are naïve.”

The philanthropic project also established the independent National Youth Commission and report into Youth Homelessness, which found that the issue does not involve a particular type of young person but a process of events that happen in a young person’s life. It also showed that homelessness can happen to anyone, with a breakdown of personal relationships and financial and housing problems found to be major factors.

By Milly Caffrey