WTTW-11 announces the broadcast of the hour-long documentary film @home Wed., Dec. 17 at 9 p.m., raising awareness about the issue of homelessness in the Chicago area this holiday season.
After meeting homeless individuals and recording their stories, Mark Horvath often tweets that a homeless person's situation or story "wrecks" him, and this compelling documentary evokes a similarly emotional response from viewers. @home, a film by Susanne Suffredin and produced by Chicago's Kindling Group, follows social media activist Mark Horvath ( @hardlynormal ) on an 11,000 mile cross-country road-trip into tent cities, under bridges, and by-the-week motels introducing us to the population of people living in America without permanent housing. Formerly homeless and now sober for 20 years, Horvath is an empathetic main subject and an indefatigable social-media activist via social media, YouTube, and his website InvisiblePeople.tv, who has resolved to "solve homelessness in the next five or ten years."
@home amplifies the power of Horvath's work and explores how social media and digital advocacy can challenge stereotypes and catalyze change for this issue, so often misunderstood and ignored. Director Susanne Suffredin seamlessly combines cinema verité, in stunning visual interludes that transport us into Horvath's online world, with archival footage of Horvath during an earlier, unstable period in his life, and interviews with homeless persons and advocates. By profiling Horvath and seeing the homeless epidemic through his eyes, this film resists compassion fatigue. It's a potent discussion starter, not only about homelessness, but also about the power of social media and Horvath's work to sustain this crucial conversation.
To build on Horvath's model, the producers of @home are partnering with local homeless service organizations to run a social media campaign during the holiday season using #Thankful4Home, asking Chicagoans to share why they're thankful for a home during Thanksgiving and through the New Year. The campaign is part of a social media training program for local nonprofits to build social media expertise to better fundraise for their work and advocate for the homeless.
The public television premiere and social media campaign during the 2014 holiday season will provide a much-needed jumping off-point for Chicagoans to discuss ways to help the homeless in their communities, including volunteering, advocacy, and fundraising for individuals and organizations in need. Participants and viewers will be encouraged to take action via the film's website, www.athomedocumentary.org . Ways to get involved will include donating to a homeless individual via Benevolent ( www.benevolent.net ), joining the online conversation, and finding local volunteer opportunities.
This online campaign will be supplemented by a partnership with StoryCorps encouraging homeless individuals to record their stories at the Chicago Cultural Center.
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