Snapshots from “Rescue Me”
A Note from the Director
In 2003, I spent six months on the mean streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, a nightmarish 50-block area where about 11,000 homeless people and drug addicts live in cardboard boxes, tents and overcrowded missions. Most of my time in Skid Row was spent at the Union Rescue Mission, an interdenominational Christian organization dedicated to serving the homeless of Skid Row. During those transformational months for me, I made a film entitled Rescue Me.
Rescue Me is an epic film, running 3 hours and 20 minutes in length. While the film is essentially about the Union Rescue Mission, a little less than a third of the film contains my personal impressions of and reflections on Skid Row, in sections I called “Snapshots from the Streets.” These “snapshots” are often very theological in nature; and, for me, they were the heart and soul of the film.
While Rescue Me stands near the top of my personal favorites of the thirteen films produced to date by The San Damiano Foundation, I realize that its length was an obstacle for many people, and so I have long wanted to produce a highly condensed version of the film that would essentially consist of my personal reflections and some of the many memorable “street people” I came to love.
It is my hope that A Distressing Disguise will give people a more accessible look into the tortured world of the homeless in America.
We can no longer ignore the homeless. We need to rescue them…and in doing so we will also rescue ourselves from our prisons of selfishness and indifference.
Running Time: 103 MIN
© 2009 The San Damiano Foundation
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