2008 Student Short Film Competition

Yesterday, the Miami Coalition for the Homeless announced the winners of the 2008 Student Short Film Competition.  The announce came at a screening held at the Tower Theater and was part of this years' Miami International Film Festival.  The winning entry will be shown on March 9th at one of the closing Film Festival events, but yesterday was a day for celebrating the talents of these young filmmakers and also for drawing attention to the circumstances which cause people to become homeless. Once the Film Festival events are concluded, WPBT will be proud to showcase the good work of these students on our video site uVu.

About Becoming Homeless was the theme of this year's competition. According to the coalition homelessness can happen to anyone. In fact, about 4 out of 10 homeless people are kids under 18 years old. The greatest cause of homelessness is not being able to afford a place to live. While the number of people living in poverty has been growing in the last 20 years, the number of apartments and homes that are affordable keeps shrinking. Most people who work for the minimum wage cannot afford an apartment in Miami-Dade County. People who have a disability and can’t work, find it even more impossible to find housing. People who are disabled due to a mental illness or a physical disability often only receive $600 a month from the government to live off of, while a one-bedroom apartment goes for $830. The longer a person remains homeless, the more likely they are to be a victim of crime or develop a mental illness or substance abuse problem. Most homeless people are not homeless by choice, but each of us has a choice to be a part of the solution.

Entries came from across South Florida and the 19 finalists, representing the "best of the best" had their films screened during the afternoon.  The winning entry, from producer Kayla O'Brien, was called "Face It.'