Young filmmakers showcase work
On the set of Animal Control, the recently completed music video by homeless and marginalized youth enrolled in Outside the Frame, and staring Mic Crenshaw, Noah, JProdigy, the Oregon Symphony, Friends of Noise and participants from Portland Public Schools.
While fires burned and a new virus raged, Outside the Frame, a Portland nonprofit which trains homeless and marginalized youth to make films, were working to capture stories about racial justice, mental health, wildfires and healthcare.
Riders in the Storm, good films about a bad year will premiere Thursday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Hollywood Theatre in northeast Portland, stories told by unhoused people who trust their experiences with Outside the Frame to showcase a grassroots response to the epidemic and how the houseless community has influenced Portland city policy.
The films include Rose City Rising which highlights the group’s work with Portland Public high school students, veteran activist and musician Mic Crenshaw, Friends of Noise and the Oregon Symphony to create five powerful music videos about the youth-led movement for racial justice.
Another film, Masks, reveals what living with schizophrenia really feels like and the humble dreams of the protagonist - to have a place to live and a caring roommate. “To give more of an understanding of psychosis and why their reality is different because a lot of the time it’s very invalidated, and I think it will help people understand what the other side of it is like.”
Riders on the Storm highlights Metro’s public servants, their evacuation efforts of houseless people, and working against all odds to help our homeless neighbors during COVID and Oregon’s wildfires.
Becoming Raven is a story of transformation from a houseless street newspaper vendor to the creator of a COVID taskforce to the establishment of a city sanctioned encampment.
Health Clinic Heroes, produced for the Coalition of Community Health Clinics, features frontline staff at health clinics, from a nurse who treats a single mom with COVID to the rapid opening of a childcare center for health clinic workers who needed to continue treating patients.
During the gala ceremony, a lifetime of achievement award will be given to local hero, Casey Culley, a community health outreach worker at Central City Concern who has worked within unsanctioned homeless camps in the Portland Metro area.
“Going through my addiction and my homelessness, which ultimately all led me to coming out of it and being restored and getting opportunities and a chance to be a human being again, I wanted to be one of those few people I had in my journey that were just rock stars, super passionate about their work,” said Culley. “One of the things that really keeps me constantly motivated is having been there in my life and then having an incredible organization like Central City Concern be a part of restoring my hope, and helping me get a chance to unlock a life I never had even as a possibility in my mind. I'm super passionate and on fire for helping people to see that there is hope for them too.”
To attend the screenings, a proof of vaccination or negative COVID test and masks are required. Kids under 12 with a vaccinated adult are welcome. The theatre will be at 75 percent capacity under public health requirements during the coronavirus pandemic.
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