Lost angels

2010, 72 minutes

This documentary feature chronicles the lives of several residents of Los Angeles's Skid Row

LOST ANGELS LONG SYNOPSIS 4/28/10 2010. Los Angeles. As many as 10,000 mentally ill people live on the streets or in low-income housing all within one-square mile of Downtown, in an area known as Skid Row. Like the hundreds of thousands of other such individuals in every other city in America, they live all around us - many without hope and without support. These are the human beings we routinely choose not to see on our streets, outside the store and sleeping on benches. 

 
Director Thomas Napper’s LOST ANGELS takes the viewer on an uncompromising and life-affirming chronicle of the journeys of eight such remarkable individuals - people who have somehow found a way to make a life for themselves in this unique community….Lee Anne, once a Southern Mom, now compelled every night to feed the stray cats of Skid Row….K.K.,  a charismatic ex-boxer, Lee Anne’s protector and fiercely eloquent area historian…Bam Bam, the transgender self-styled “freak”, whose flamboyant style and sheer physical presence masks a deep and articulate understanding of mental illness…Detroit, the mother of three who walked away and left her family, before finally finding a life without a roof over her head, still trying to heal herself …O.G., dedicated street sweeper, committed chronicler and unofficial “lord mayor” of the neighborhood…Linda Harris, socially outcast due to a rare congenital skin condition, yet possessed of an inner grace that shines in the place she calls home…General Dogon, the radical ex-convict, who has forged an army of community co-workers to protect civil rights on Skid Row…and Danny Harris, a former Olympic athlete, who hit rock bottom in the missions yet bravely got back up, on the Row.

 

LOST ANGELS also shows a neighborhood besieged by gentrification and a police force under orders to criminalize homelessness, whilst exposing the draconian changes to the mental health care system that led us here.  With the support of a vast array of advocates and organizers devoted to protecting the rights of society’s castaways, the residents of Skid Row have found a way to stick together and fight back. Narrated by actress Catherine Keener, LOST ANGELS gives a platform for the proactive approaches that are working to help many recover from mental illness and substance abuse. For many, Skid Row is, perhaps improbably, the last place to find refuge and build a life of true meaning….proving that sometimes, home is where the help is.

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