A unique experiment during the Covid crisis challenged the uncaring view of people in a situation of homelessness as scroungers and showed what can be done when people come together in a situation of trust, where their individual stories are respected. Wealthy countries have the means to solve social problems but are reluctant to fund projects that work.
Graham Douglas
Homelessness is a worldwide problem and in developed countries it has often been viewed as a moral failing by individuals, who are therefore not worth helping.
This was also the view of drug abuse until a shift of perspective towards seeing it as a public health problem was forced by the AIDS crisis and by the sheer numbers of people addicted to heroin. Portugal is recognized as a leader in progressive and effective drug policies, and many people believe that the time has come for a similar approach to people in a situation of homelessness.
During the Covid confinement period the local authority in Lisbon converted a sports centre into a place of temporary residence for homeless people where they received many forms of assistance and a caring community developed, guided by an activist leader in which residents took responsibility for each other and for ensuring as little disturbance as possible to people in neighbouring flats.
Two filmmakers, Dorian Riviere and Zsofi Paczolay were in Lisbon at the time and gradually became involved as volunteers leading to “I am here”, a documentary film, their first full-length collaboration, which was shown at this year’s DocLisboa festival, where I spoke to them about the issues involved in running the centre and making a film inside it over a period of 10 months.
This is your first full length film for both of you, how did it happen?
Zsofi: During Covid we were part of Docnomads: a European MA programme in film directing, that took place in Lisbon. After a two-month-long lockdown we found an opportunity of volunteering in a newly opened emergency centre for people in the situation of homelessness, the Casal Vistoso project. Spending some time there, meeting many people who were sharing their intriguing stories inspired us to start to dream about a documentary film.
Dorian: When we told people that we are filmmakers, some of them suggested that we should make a film there. After getting permission and enthusiastic support from Teresa Bispo, the coordinator of the program, we started to bring our camera with us. At first it felt impossible to make an observational film, so based on the routines of the place we started to stage situations and search for people who would like to participate. Tiago and Placido were the most enthusiastic ones.
Placido and Tiago appear a lot, were the others shy?
In the beginning we had all kinds of ideas, but in reality, they were the ones who dedicated themselves all along. They were persistent, curious, and generous and on most days, we were able to film together. When they did not feel like it, we did not.
There were ethical questions including respecting peoples’ privacy and questions like: how would these people feel being seen in this film in say 5 years’ time when their lives had changed?
Some days everything would go well, and on other days people would not be available or just not in the mood: it changed from one day to the next, so we had to adapt.
There were a few difficult moments involving residents and staff and the police once, which you did show, so I imagine there were many other moments that couldn’t be shown.
D: We had an unspoken rule not to show drugs, alcohol or violence – because the film was not about that, and because we didn’t want to provide food for prejudice when an audience watched the film. It is very important to understand that people are sensitive individuals, with their personal background and challenges, with dreams and wishes, maybe a flat or a job – they can never be reduced to a bunch of drink and drug users.
Teresa was very insistent that people should not drink or use drugs outside because the neighbours could be watching and film them.
Z: The sports complex is in a residential area and before Covid it had been used a lot by local people, who were very opposed to the change in the neighbourhood, complaining on Facebook. One of the criticisms was that the project had not been communicated well so that local people could be more tolerant for bearing this extra load, like noise and the presence of addiction.
Did the papers send reporters?
D: It was on TV in different ways. Lisbon Council promoted it as a necessary response to Covid and the need for vaccination, but there were people who had lived in the area for 20 years who complained that the centre was imposed on them.
Z: Many local people live in tall blocks and on one occasion someone threw an egg at residents.
D: Although there was never any sort of violence committed by residents in the area, there was a problem with people using drugs around the centre, although groups of residents went out to pick up any needles and signs of drug use on a daily basis.
Z: At the time there was no place nearby where they could go to legally and safely consume.
The people in the situation of homelessness had a community in the streets, and within the centre, so when they move to a flat, they must deal with a more isolated life, a bit like that of the neighbours living in blocks.
D: It’s an interesting point because Covid made this social isolation even worse for everyone, and without realising it the neighbours were experiencing the same challenges and isolation that a person who tries to break away from a long term situation of homelessness.
Are people re-housed into purpose-built places where they can form a community or just allocated to wherever a place is available’
Z: Housing First tries to find places that are available at lower rents.
D: The idea is to avoid a ghetto, and to help people integrate with the area, and have social workers. It’s difficult and sometimes people go back to the centre or to where they know they can meet their friends again.
Z: Social isolation is a problem for all of us nowadays because the neighbourhood networks don’t exist like they used to. Tiago is going on with his life, he has a job, but he lives alone so this is still a problem, and the programme can’t solve it. I wonder why society doesn’t provide places where people can live communally and contribute skills. Tiago did this in the centre, because he was always available to help with repairs.
D: For a people in the situation of homelessness the challenge is even greater. People think they live on the street and beg because they are lazy and it’s easy money.
I think this is the biggest misunderstanding they face. We hope that the film can show that things are not like that at all.
Someone’s normal life can suddenly end when a partner leaves or dies, or after an accident and they get to a point where they’ve lost friends and start using drugs – it’s a long journey back then.
D: The pressures of society are not obvious to most of us, until something drastic happens and we are exposed them. It’s not abnormal, it’s a logical consequence of the capitalistic world we all live in, based on unfair distribution of wealth and social resources. We watched some films by Frederick Wiseman, who tries to explore the different mechanisms of social systems, how society works as a whole on different levels. In the film, we show the daily life in the centre, different activities of residents, social workers, volunteers: how everything comes from concrete individual struggles and efforts, and how this extends to a social system. The main question we wanted to ask in the film is “What is care, and how are we caring on a personal level, and also as a society?”.
(Next week: Part 2)
(Photos and stills provided by Dorian Rivière and authorised for free publication in The Prisma.)
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