A man strikes up a friendship with a homeless man while working on a short film with the intent to humanize the under-represented and misunderstood population of San Francisco.
Director Fran Guijarro started this journey in college when he came from Spain to San Francisco to study film. Soon he found himself making a short film about the homeless population of the city and, more specifically, one about this caring homeless man named Moses. Soon, Guijarro finds himself befriending the man and getting ready to present his short at a festival in Europe which leads him to helping Moses get his passport and in the process make a documentary about the man that spans decades. Through time spent with Moses, interviews, old footage of the man, and a lot of work, this documentary becomes fully about a man who was well-known to workers in the Financial District, homeless folks in the Tenderloin, and many more. Guijarro takes his time here with the subject, learning as much as he can on man many would not look at twice were it not for his personality and charm.
The film does great at giving a ton of information on the man, letting him be himself on screen, and seemingly not censoring anything. However, it desperately needs a trim, an extra editor with an eye for moving things along, especially around the middle. The film starts well, moves quickly, then it screeches to a halt at about the hour mark (of two hours), then the pace picks back up, drops off again, etc. There is a lot here and perhaps some of it was not fully needed, especially when interviewing musicians Moses used to work with. There’s too much there and this viewer kept losing to the ADHD monster, not paying enough attention and forcing to rewatch some scenes. The editing here is something that, with a bit more experience, could easily fix the pacing issues.
The cinematography on the other hand is fairly even with some truly beautiful sequences here and there. It focuses on the subject but also helps establish the tone, the mood, and the land in which this man evolves. The film looks good here.
The folks involved in making this film clearly have all the best intentions of putting a man, a homeless man, one who was extraordinary front and center and make him the star of the film. The intention of showing another side of homelessness, one that is human, comes across quite well and makes the film, flaws and all, something to see.