- Playing
- Lost in America
- From
- Helen Borten
Drug addicts, a prostitute and a blind woman recount their journeys through homelessness to a new life.
Winner, "Best Documentary," National Women's Political Caucus
One :30 promo (click "listen" page, promo labeled "Segment 2")
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Piece Description
Drug addicts, a prostitute and a blind woman recount their journeys through homelessness to a new life. Winner, "Best Documentary," National Women's Political Caucus One :30 promo (click "listen" page, promo labeled "Segment 2")
2 Comments
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Review of Lost in AmericaThis is a beautiful piece. Its length and its intensity are challenging, but to me it's never a downer. The voices speak of horrible experience, but they have great energy — it's not about victims, it's about people surviving. I really appreciate its concreteness — how you do your laundry and keep clean if you're living on the street. The narrator stays almost out of it, and that works well. The music supports the emotion honestly, is never sticky. No special pleading, just dead honesty. Though I'm not sure the title is quite apt (though poetic): these people aren't lost, I think — they're like my mother, focused on the day-at-a-time. |
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Ben Trefny
Posted on November 19, 2005 at 09:54 AM | Permalink
Review of Lost in America
It's one thing to think of the terms "drug addict" or "prostitute" or "homeless person", but to hear the stories of people living on the streets... to understand their backstories, their reasons, is something entirely different. Borten's documentary gives that insight. I truly appreciate pieces that give that three-dimensional sense of a person, because listening to such stories help me to better understand a greater world around me. I recommend this piece for producers who have half-an-hour to air pieces that give a more holistic perspective to how and why people suffer, and what it can take to overcome personal demons.