Skid Row Movie Maker Has Hit the Skids Himself
When Gary Glaser began planning a documentary on the homeless, he didn’t suspect that he would soon find himself out of work, his car repossessed, his telephone service about to be cut off and many of his belongings in the pawn shop.
“Now I know how easy it is to fall once you’re on the skids,” Glaser, 34, said the other day in his small bachelor apartment in Hollywood.
Nevertheless, using “the erased tapes of some old (Marlon) Brando movies,” the former television cameraman went ahead and shot six hours of footage on Justiceville, a downtown collection of makeshift dwellings for the homeless that was later dismantled by the city.
Glaser showed a rough 30-minute clip at a recent American Civil Liberties Union gathering and actress Eileen Brennan volunteered to narrate it. “She’s committed to doing it,” said Paul Burditch, Brennan’s publicist.
But the question is whether she will have anything to narrate. The project is stalled.
Glaser, who estimates that he has invested $5,000 of his (and friends’) money, lacks the funds to get his equipment out of hock and to cut and assemble the footage into a half-hour film.
Glaser had been a cameraman at KTLA (Channel 5) for six years when he was laid off this year. Although he still works there occasionally along with other free-lance jobs, he said he has been unable to find full-time employment.
“I’m having trouble getting around (without the car),” said the somewhat gaunt Glaser, who has lost 10 pounds over the last six months. “My landlord’s been patient, but I may not be able to stay here much longer. And if the phone service goes, that’ll be bad because a lot of the homeless still call me collect.
“Of course, being laid off allowed me the time to go down to Justiceville and shoot the film,” Glaser said. “It was a life-changing kind of situation for me. Any personal problems I’ve had have more than been outweighed by the rewards of working on this film, something socially relevant.”
Glaser said he is determined to finish the documentary because “it will inspire people. It will lend a human touch to these (homeless) people. It will show that a lot of them aren’t that much different from you and me.”
During the filming, he spent several nights at Justiceville and trained some of the homeless residents to assist him on the movie.
“At night I would give a talk on one technical aspect or another,” he said. “People like ‘J. D.’ and ‘T’ and ‘Black Robert’--a lot of them are just known by their nicknames--served as grips and electricians and lighting assistants. It gave them a real feeling of pride.”
The movie, Glaser said, will be more than just a collection of interviews “like you see on the evening news.”
“It will show the people relating to one another, working, singing, laughing,” he said. “It will show how different colors, creeds and genders came together. You know, one of the big problems of the homeless is the isolation--sleeping on the street alone.”
Glaser also is trying to acquire the rights to two songs, “Lonesome Road Blues” by Bill Broonzy and “Too Many People” by Finis Tasby, for the documentary.
Health Violations
Justiceville, which housed about 60 people, was dismantled and bulldozed by the city on May 10 after the county Department of Health Services charged that there were numerous violations of health, building and safety, zoning and fire codes. Some residents charged that there was drug activity as well.
“It’s true there were health and other violations,” Glaser said. “But wherever you have people living outside on the streets, there are going to be health violations. “
If Glaser can get his cameras back, he and partner Gerard Speno also want to film a video entitled “Street People,” with the proceeds going to the homeless.
“At the Live Aid concert, Bob Dylan said it would be nice if some of the money stayed here to help the people in America, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Glaser, adding that he plans to make his documentary “a continuous fund-raiser for the homeless.”
Plans for a third project--a concert to raise funds for the street people--will be unveiled by Glaser and Justiceville organizer Ted Hayes this morning at a press conference at the site of the former Tent City on the corner of Spring and 1st streets.
“I just hope people aren’t burned out on causes,” Glaser said.
