Saturday, March 19, 2011

NEW RELEASE! American Refugees: Homelessness in Four Movements DVD & Soundtrack

It's been far too long, but BENT is proud to present a new DVD documentary: American Refugees: Homelessness in Four Movements as well as the soundtrack by The New Rome. You can order the DVD from our createspace eStore and order the soundtrack from Itunes.

This documentary was filmed in and around Birmingham, Alabama in conjunction with Jason Wasserman and Jeffrey Clair's four-year ethnographic research, providing a further opportunity to experience the people and issues discussed in their book, At Home on the Street: People, Poverty and a Hidden Culture of Homelessness.

$2 of every full price purchase through the eStore will be donated to the Church of the Reconciler located in Birmingham, Alabama. Also, if you already own the book, you will be entitled to a $5 discount.

American Refugees is a gripping and fast-paced portrait of life on the streets. Maintaining the richness and complexity surrounding the issue of homelessness, Wasserman and Clair offer a film that is academic and artistic in equal measure. The filmmakers cover life on the streets from political conflict to service programs to social justice. Together with their book At Home on the Street, Wasserman and Clair offer new insights into society's broken relationship with those who are homeless, illustrating that even where social programs are designed to help, they often serve only to replicate the oppression at the heart of homelessness in the first place. Interviews with those living on the street, those staying in shelters, police officers, religious leaders, shelter directors, outreach workers, sociologists, city officials, graffiti artists, and radical local activists give the audience a well-rounded look into a difficult issue, all while maintaining an artistic sensibility.

American Refugees - Short Trailer from Jason Wasserman on Vimeo.

For more information on At Home on the Street and American Refugees, please visit At Home on the Street.