The film director and producer of "No Room in Paradise" appeared on Sunrise this morning to talk about the impact of his documentary, 3 months after it aired. Anthony Aalto said that some progress has been made, but we have a long way to go. Here are some of the issues he addressed:
Q: It’s been three months since your documentary first aired right here on Hawaii News Now. It created quite a stir. More than a million people watched the trailer, members of the Legislature asked you to testify, we were flooded with comments. I am interested to know if you think any of this attention has moved the needle in terms of our political leaders and the reality on the streets? But first I wonder if there have been any major developments in the lives of the people in the documentary?
Answer: Fixing the lives of people who are chronically homeless is not just like flipping a light switch. Even if we’re able to help them get off the streets and into subsidized housing you still have to contend with the issue that made them homeless in the first place. It’s often a case of taking two steps forward and then one step back which means that as a community we have to show patience and persistence as well as compassion. Take the case of Nancy, who in some ways is the central figure in the film. When we first met her she was living in a tent by the Kapalama Canal with her 5 children.
[For more of this story, written by Grace Lee, go to http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/s...se-make-a-difference]
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