Welcome to our Documentary Short-films. Over the past two years we have made several documentary short-films (of 15 minutes or less), usually occasioned by pressing community events or issues that demanded community attention. Our thanks to CMTV-14 Spokane for airing all of our productions!
Shelters, Not Fences
This documentary short-film (8 minutes) focuses on fences recently installed by the City of Spokane in the Browne Street viaduct in order to prevent the homeless from sleeping or camping there. It also commemorates the 231 individuals who died while experiencing homelessness between January of 2020 and December of 2021.
Homeless Camps
This is the broadcast version of a documentary short we first issued as a “rough cut” in preparation for a meeting of the Spokane Homeless Coalition to discuss how the City of Spokane deals with homeless camps (you can view the “rough cut” version in the right-hand sidebar on this page). The broadcast version has been slightly tweaked including some opening music and a few minor edits. We prepared this finalized cut for broadcast on Community-Minded Television (Comcast 14) in Spokane.
The Dignity of A Shower
Do you shower every day? What would life be like if you couldn’t? 52% of the known and counted homeless in Spokane, Washington have no access to a shelter, a bed, or a shower (or many other things you and I take for granted). This is their story.
Does Anybody Care?
Without any narration, this short-film documentary tells the story-in-pictures of people experiencing homelessness on the streets of Spokane when temperatures fell into single digits (the wind-chill when we filmed was -9 degrees!). The title for the piece came from an email I received from a homeless service provider who sent me pictures of freezing people sleeping in doorways, along with a simple question: “Does anyone care?”
Our Daily Bread: Fighting Food Insecurity With Compassion and Equity
This is the broadcast version of a piece on food security that Rising River Media did in collaboration with the Spokane Regional Health District, the Spokane Food Security Coalition, Special Mobility Services, The ZONE Project, and 2nd Harvest. It documents a pilot program that ran in December 2020 and provided emergency food boxes to individuals and families experiencing food insecurity.
The Gospel According To Sandwiches
A local Church (The Gathering House) committed their congregation to prepare and deliver 40 sack lunches (Monday thru Friday) to the guests at the City Church Warming Center. This is their story, which also appears in our documentary, “The Least of These: Communities of Faith Serving The Homeless”.
Winter For The Unsheltered Homeless
This documentary short-film follows a team of outreach workers and street doctors as they visit homeless camps during winter weather.
Our Annual Greek Homeless Tragedy
An annual lack of planning for adequate homeless warming centers for the winter months in Spokane, Washington has constituted an on-going “Annual Greek Homeless Tragedy” which we document here.
Appreciation: The Greatest Gift
The foundation arm of the local utility company (Avista) asked us to produce a “Thank You” video featuring local homeless service providers and their staff. It was featured at an appreciation banquet in January of 2020.
Street Medicine In The Age of Coronavirus
Street medical teams from the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine at WSU have been serving our homeless community for roughly a year in Spokane now. We began filming them shortly after they started, just as the Coronavirus pandemic was getting underway.
KREM2 Story About Homeless Camps Documentary
KREM 2 (the local CBS affiliate) contacted me about the documentary short on Homeless Camps (which you'll find on this page) and asked for an interview.
Fig Tree Article On “The Dignity of A Shower”
I honestly didn't see this one coming. I got an email saying, "Here's the link to your story." It's a story about "The Dignity of A Shower," our documentary short on the need for showers in the homeless community. My thanks to Mary Stamp (Editor) and the staff at The Fig Tree Newspaper for following our documentaries on homelessness in Spokane.
It’s Always Nice To Get Noticed!
Shawn Vestal and The Spokesman-Review paid us a visit as we were filming "Give Me Shelter." We genuinely appreciated the very positive exposure they gave us for what we're trying to accomplish, showing a better optic, telling a better story, and setting a better tone. Click to read the whole article.
Our Thanks to SpIFF For Selecting Our Film!
We were approached in late 2019 by the directors of the Spokane International Film Festival (SpIFF) and asked if we had a version of "The Hidden Homeless" that we could submit to the Festival. Their board had decided that they wanted to do something relevant to the issue of homelessness and had heard about our work. We agreed and Nathan Slabaugh (Slabaugh Media) worked to chop down our Director's Cut to a shorter film festival version which we submitted to great reviews. Many thanks!