I’m looking for a good film or documentary for my 7th/8th graders to watch before we do our 24 hour homeless awareness over-nighter. I’ve been searching, but my google fu appears weak tonight (perhaps it has just gone to bed without me).
Can anyone recommend something high-impact, yet reasonably suitable for young teens? I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you 
~cats
Not a documentary, but Pursuit of Happyness might serve the purpose.
I had a teacher in high school (Sociology/Psychology) who had us watch clips from “Bum fights.” I think the point was to get us outraged or make us feel uncomfortable seeing how they were mistreated. But that only really works if your students are especially mature and well behaved.
We were not.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’m thinking of ending the experience with Pursuit of Happyness, but I’d like to watch something kind of gritty for us to talk about all night. I’ll look and see if I can find this Bum Fights
I should also mention that Bumfights isn’t a documentary, so much as it a…well…
Here’s the wikipedia article about it: Bumfights - Wikipedia
The tone of it really tries to glorify the crap that they do to these guys. But it doesn’t take an especially thoughtful person to know what they’re doing is evil, especially in certain particularly cruel scenes (spray painting a guy trying to sleep in a strip in Las Vegas, for one).
Dark Days was really good. However, I’m not totally sure it would work for what you’re going for. I live in Milwaukee and it was a bit our of touch for me. Milwaukee could never support this kind of homeless society (from a physical standpoint) so it didn’t really strike home like it might to a New Yorker. But, it’s still a really cool documentary about homelessness.
Doubtful you will find Bum Fights, as IIRC the filmmakers are in jail and copies have been pulled from distribution. And even if you could find it, I don’t think you’d eventually conclude it was worth watching. wiki
I haven’t watched any of the stuff at VBS about homelessness, but they have a handful of things you could check out at
Good luck!
Dark Days looks like a good bet. I’m going to track it down and preview it.
Also, Snowboarder Bo, I’ll look into that link.
Thanks for everything, guys… this is going to be an interesting “first” for me- looking forward to it.
Even if it doesn’t work for the class, it’s still a good documentary to watch (if you like documentaries.)
I was going to suggest this, but there are some pretty bleak bits. IIRC they are virtually all crack addicts, and there are quite a few tales of childhood abuse (predictably, I guess). Seventh and eight graders should be fine with it, maybe a few nightmares, it’s more their parents I’d be worried about!
You might also try an episode of A&E’s Intervention – there are quite a few featuring homeless people, and you could probably get a variety of people in there, old and young, male and female, alcoholics and drug addict, sympathetic and not-very-sympathetic, coming from poor families and glamorous careers. Plus you’d get the nice anti-drug message in there, too, at no cost!
I’m curious—what does the ‘over-nighter’ consist of? It sounds interesting, fun, and perhaps even a bit dangerous. Are you all actually going to out onto the streets at night and interact with the homeless firsthand?
I have another vote for further explanation about what this homeless awareness overnighter will entail.
I watched “Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County” this summer. It was fairly interesting, although the producers went a little overboard with the melodramatic music, I thought.
There’s Reversal of Fortune, which is a documentary, it features a homeless man and answers the question: What would happen if you gave a homeless person $100,000 in cash?
I don’t remember what it was rated though I think the language was a bit salty in patches.
An interesting premise if not overtly exploitave. I don’t know how easy it would be to track down a copy quickly though.
There’s 1984’s Streetwise, but I can’t seem to find what it’s rated. It’s pretty gritty.
Most impactful line: “I never met my dad. Unless maybe I dated him.”
WOW! I had forgotten about this movie! I don’t think I’ve seen it since it was in release, but IIRC it was unrated. GREAT movie.
How old are 7th/8th graders? Something like 12/13? Fight my ignorance: why in the world should a kid that age be going on a “24 hour homeless awareness over-nighter” if such a thing is close to being what it is advertised as?
I was going to suggest Streetwise, too, but I haven’t seen it, and I suspect your students may be too young for it.
So a little about my class’s adventure.
I teach at a small charter school, in a decent-sized Midwestern college town. We will be staying all night in cardboard boxes on the school’s playground, which is enclosed by a fence.
The game plan is this: after school Friday, we will “forage” for cardboard boxes to sleep in. I want the kids to have to find their own, but I plan on having some stashed near dumpsters at the main building (we are in an “annex”). I’m also thinking that the kids will have to “beg” for breakfast and a nearby pastry shop (I’ll visit them before Friday and pay for some doughnuts- or possibly get them to donate them- there’s only 15 or so of the kids actually going to stay). For dinner, we are going to make hobo stew… again, I plan to have some strategic cans of food stuck someplace for them to find. We might also “beg” at another restaurant for some bread sticks at dinner time.
At 9pm, we will lock ourselves in the playground where we have built our cardboard homes. Throughout the night, pairs of parents will be parked in the parking lot keeping an eye out for two hour shifts until 6am.
We have made little stuffed mascots and plan to offer them for “adoption”, with all proceeds and donations going to our local homeless shelter.
My hub is an EMT, and because he has a bad back (or so he says), he is actually going to take our camper and have it in the parking lot in case of emergencies. If the kids (or myself) get too freaked out, we’ll just head into the school and finish out the night.
Like I said, it is my first stab at something like this. Our school is very community service- oriented kind of place. We’ll see how it goes- I think I am going to need some luck
I’m going to look into all the suggestions offered, and try to get a movie that will resonate with the kids.
Thanks for the ideas!
It seems like you’re taking plenty of precautions, but I’ll offer up one more anyways. If the area you’re staying in is a small town type place, call the local police department a day or two ahead of time. Give them a heads up of your plan regarding the sleeping, hubby with camper and the two hour shifts with the parents in the lot and ask if they could drive by from time to time and keep an eye on things. Just a cruise around the perimeter from time to time would be great. If nothing else, I don’t think they would mind having a heads up that there’s going to be a bunch of people in a place were they aren’t used to seeing a bunch of people.
Also, I’d assume it’s a given, but make sure any adults on the premises have cell phones.