‘Season of Drought’ filmmakers hope to put a face on homelessness

A lost job, an extended illness, domestic violence, a house fire.

That can be all it takes for some people to end up homeless.

“It’s such a delicate dance that we do especially in today’s society, staying afloat and staying above water. If you miss one step of the routine, you might just fall into the water. For a lot of people, that’s one sick day or that’s one injury or that’s one bad day at the house away from losing everything you have. I feel like we’re so caught up in the rat race that we forget just how close we are to tapping out our own selves,” said Lee Yancey, director of community engagement for Season of Drought, a multi-faceted project designed to bring humanity to homelessness.

Over the summer, the Season of Drought team has been working on the first phase in Augusta, filming a documentary highlighting homelessness through the eyes of those who’ve lived it as well as those who are working to supply solutions.

Other phases of the project include creating a short film and a feature film. And at least one of the Seasons of Drought team members believe this could spawn a docuseries.

 While some homelessness is visible and obvious, that’s not always the case.

Not every homeless person pushes a shopping cart full of belongings, sleeps on a park bench or is mentally ill.

“Some live out of their cars,” said Caleb Hale, documentary director.

Others may have housing, but they can’t afford anything else – food, utilities, he said, putting them at-risk of becoming homeless.

Others have jobs and go to work every day, but don’t have a place to call their home.

Women and children are also among the homeless.

One of the places they filmed over the summer was GAP Ministries which offers several outreaches.

 “Working with the ‘Season of Drought’ team is beautiful. They are tackling the misconceptions and struggles surrounding the topic of homelessness. It is being told through the eyes of people living it as well as the courageous community members working in the trenches to make an impactful difference. Knowledge is power and my hope is that after watching this documentary, people will be inspired to join the fight,” said Nomi Stanton, GAP executive director.

 Season of Drought team members chose Augusta for its first project because it’s their hometown; many of them are graduates of Augusta University. And it was a perfect spot to highlight a microcosm that reflects the issue in other communities as well.

 “We’re not an LA or New York but we’re more representative of nation across the board,” said Emily Pinto, assistant program manager.

 Through their filming, they’ve interviewed homeless people, directors of organizations providing resources for the homeless and law enforcement.

More than simply extracting information from them, Season of Drought members said they’ve wanted to connect with them on a human level.

 Yancey said the homeless people they’ve spoken with have gone through a lot in their lives and sometimes just want someone who will hear them, see them as people.

“(Homelessness) is essentially a journey that is often perpetuated and kept going by isolation— not just personal isolation but it’s mental isolation and spiritual isolation but to the point where someone experiencing or suffering from homelessness will entirely disconnect from the notion of society,” said Yancey.

The documentary entered its editing stage in August and filmmakers hope to enter it into multiple film festivals.

After that, there are plans for a feature that follows more of a story format because some people might watch it over a documentary.

But overall, filmmakers hope it sparks people to action.

“The tagline we try to use is ‘homelessness is not an individual problem. It’s a global epidemic that requires individual attention.’ It may seem that it’s a very grand issue to tackle. But the truth is as long as you take one person. It only takes one person to get out there. One person times a million is one million,” said Simone Cummings, program manager.

Actions could range from volunteering or donating to a homeless organization or other filmmakers tackling the issue in their community.

Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.