As part of Homelessness Awareness Week, Shelter NI, in partnership with the Belfast Film Festival will be hosting a three-day film festival at the Beanbag Cinema from Thursday 6th December until Saturday 8th of December.
The Shelter NI Film Festival is a great platform to demystify homelessness and share with the general public some local facts about homelessness across Northern Ireland.
Every day across Northern Ireland 50 families and individuals present as homeless. It doesn’t have to be this way. The Homelessness Awareness Week (HAW) is an annual week of social, educational and awareness-raising events organised across the country to highlight the issue of homelessness and to mark the continued efforts of organisations, staff, and service users working in the sector.
All the proceeds raised from these screenings will go towards funding towards housing services and advice throughout GABLE and SLATE projects, which last year helped approximately 550 people.
Here’s more info on the Festival’s three-day programme…
Wendy and Lucy (Thursday 6 December – 7 pm)
A woman’s life is derailed en route to a potentially lucrative summer job. When her car breaks down, and her dog is taken to the pound, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she is led through a series of increasingly dire economic decisions.
Tokyo Godfathers (Friday 07 December 7 pm)
Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight.
The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way.
Sweet Sixteen (Saturday 08 December- 7 pm)
Liam is a young, restless teen struggling to realize his dream in the gritty and dismal streets of Greenock, where unemployment is rampant and little hope is available to the city’s youth. He is waiting for the release of his mother, Jean, from prison where she is completing a prison term for a crime that her boyfriend actually committed.
Liam is determined to rescue his mother from both of them, which means creating a safe haven beyond their reach. But first, he’s got to raise the cash–no small feat for a young man.