Filmed throughout 2021, The Night of the Unsheltered Homeless is the latest documentary on homelessness from Rising River Media and Executive Producer Maurice Smith (who serves as the Host and Narrator). The first 10 minutes will hook you, and this 83-minute documentary will walk you through the need for low-barrier shelters, introducing you to the people whose lives have been lost by their absence, and those whose lives have been changed by their presence. You’ll discover a City that has shelter beds for only 52 out of 100 people experiencing homelessness. You’ll hear from people caught up in Law Enforcement sweeps of the homeless and from a Civil Rights attorney who explains why such sweeps don’t work. Finally, you’ll hear from community leaders openly discussing our City’s homeless policy, what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to be done moving forward. Discover why The Night of the Unsheltered Homeless is being widely viewed with overwhelmingly positive reviews from a wide variety of people, including professional filmmakers who have encouraged us to turn our work into a regular series. They say it’s that good. Even “cinematic.” As one reviewer commented, “I felt like I was watching 60 Minutes.” We hope you’ll agree!
As a bonus, on this page below we’ve posted the full interviews we conducted with the community leaders and experts who appear (in shortened form) in the documentary.
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!