Optimism Overcomes but Homes First! Patricia Baltimore is a proud, outspoken African-American woman who spent seven years homeless in Philadelphia. We meet Patricia as she moves into permanent housing. Optimistic that she has overcome homelessness, Patricia decides to help other homeless people. The documentary follows her through the streets of Philadelphia as she takes three homeless men under her wing. They set out with great optimism, only to confront the impossible conditions placed on them by the city and state government, and by their own struggle to overcome the cycle of drugs and disability.
'Patricia Baltimore' explores homelessness as a lived experience. It seeks to give urban poverty a human face and questions whether a home is a privilege or a right. Does a homeless person have to prove their worthiness to get this very basic of human needs, or is it a community’s responsibility to provide for weaker members? This documentary questions one of the basic conceits of our capitalist society— that it is the individual's responsibility to pull themselves up by the bootstraps in order to attain a life of dignity.
A film by E. Preis.