From Street to Theater : Hundreds of Homeless Attend Premiere of Movie About Them

The ornate gilt and carved-wood State Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the scene of lavish Hollywood premieres in the 1920s, held an event Tuesday closer to its roots in contemporary Los Angeles: a movie about homelessness.

“The Giving” opened two blocks from Skid Row, with several hundred homeless people in the audience. Many of them had worked as extras or production assistants when the film was made in the downtown area last year.

“This is our way of thanking them for their help,” said Tim Disney, the film’s executive producer and grandnephew of Walt Disney.

The audience, after settling in with free sodas and popcorn, applauded the credits--especially the names they recognized in the cast.

The urban fantasy chronicles a corporate Robin Hood who figures out a way to give Skid Row residents access to cash from bank automated teller machines. Many use the money to buy drugs, but one homeless leader, preaching self-reliance, sets up a farm on a downtown lot.

While the recent Mel Brooks film about homelessness, “Life Stinks,” did not fare well at the box office earlier this year, Disney predicted a better fate for his movie.

“We think we will make a lot of money,” he said. “We want to show you can do something with social conscience for a profit motive.”

Disney said he is still looking for a distributor.

Although one audience member shouted, “This film sucks!” as the movie ended, others said they were touched by it.

“I felt hurt about the fact that people try to help, but its all in vain,” said Rudy Macon, 41, who had successfully completed a drug recovery program and was no longer homeless. “The streets are like an addiction.”

Frank Betton, 25, said he had heard about the opening that morning on Skid Row, where he has been homeless for two months. Carrying a blanket that he uses when he sleeps outside, Betton said he thought the movie was good because “it showed downtown.”

He didn’t think the movie was very authentic, but he enjoyed it.

The movie fantasy ended just before nightfall and Betton quickly confronted reality. He had a voucher to stay at one shelter for the night, but he had to choose between dinner and a bed. There would be no time to stand in line for a free dinner at a downtown mission and still get to the shelter before it closed for the night at 5 p.m.

He chose the bed.

“There have been plenty of times I haven’t eaten,” he said with a shrug.