"If you're not dressed nice, they won't do shit for you" says one of the interviewees in filmmaker Richard Cohen's examination of Santa Monica's homeless situation, nicely summing up the one of the inherent quandaries of being down and out in America. Without access to showers or laundry facilities, a homeless person on a job interview presents a less than optimum first impression. Narrated by Martin Sheen, Taylor's Campaign focuses on Ron Taylor's 1994 bid for a seat on a city council that has more or less declared war on Santa Monica's homeless population. The camera follows Taylor, a former truck driver with a disability, as he makes his rounds in a manner somewhat different from the average politico on the stump: Taylor urges companions and constituents (the literal man and woman on the street) to get out and vote, and lobbies to keep a local meals on wheels program from being halted by the city, but he also regularly veers off the campaign trail to negotiate with the police on behalf of his friends, or drive a young mother and her infant son to low-income housing in another city, or scour dipsy-dumpsters for the cast-off riches which allow him to survive and/or help others. While not necessarily offering any solutions--beyond the obvious one of questioning the responsibilities of a compassionate society--Taylor's Campaign does make it very clear that regularly scheduled police exhortations to "move along, move along" are not the answer. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)
Taylor's Campaign
(1997) 75 min. $39 ($99 w/PPR). Richard Cohen Films. Vol. 14, Issue 3
Taylor's Campaign
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