Thursday, July 22, 2010
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
A text frame at the beginning of “Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County” lays out the basis of this HBO documentary: In the richest country in the world live some of the poorest people.
But poverty is relative to place.
There are working-poor families in affluent Orange County, Calif., who can afford only a single rent-by-the-week motel room in a seedy suburban strip near Disneyland. But they wouldn’t be quite as poor in, say, a small town in the Midwest.
Emmy-winning filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi makes fast-paced documentaries with extensive interviews, and “Homeless” is no exception. But if it went on for more than an hour, it would get thin.
She follows a handful of families, focusing mainly on the children. They live a semi-transient lifestyle because the parents are making only $10 to $15 an hour in a county where a typical apartment runs about $1,300 a month.
So why do they stay if they can’t afford it? As one mother explains, “It’s where we’ve always lived.”
That’s not really a good answer, but the truth might be that they are stuck in a catch-22 situation. They can’t save enough money to move away.
Their only option is a modern-day flophouse that is peopled by other “homeless” types: drug dealers, users, prostitutes, ex-cons and other lowlifes. Violence and police visits are an everyday occurrence.
But the children, at least at first glance, seem fairly normal — innocent and resilient.
And there is something of a family dynamic going on inside those cramped motel units. Dressers might be stuffed into bathrooms and siblings might be flopped out on the floor, but it’s home, and there are rules and chores.
It’s only when the camera lingers that the effect on the kids is revealed. One sad-faced 8-year-old girl painfully states that she has nothing to look forward to.
In “Motel Kids,” Pelosi sheds light on a troubling subculture, where normal-looking people survive hand-to-mouth in the shadow of great wealth. She gets the children to reveal their world and their thoughts.
But the viewer might come away thinking that there are many other Americans who are far more disadvantaged — and just as “invisible.”
“Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County” premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on HBO. Other playdates are July 29 (3:30 p.m., 12:30 a.m.; July 31 (1:30 p.m.); Aug. 4 (9 a.m.) and Aug. 8 (4 p.m.)