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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Rothe-Kushel '03 lets L.A.'s homeless tell their stories

Like well-cooked meals and skyscrapers, good documentaries take on a life beyond their outward function: sometimes you just set out to tell a story and end up creating art.

Jethro Rothe-Kushel '03's film, "Pharaoh's Streets," a film about homelessness in Los Angeles which takes place during the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2000, began as a narrative but became a creative act.

As soon as one looks past the simple description of the film as a documentary, it becomes art in the deepest sense; that is, it is an expression of humanity through media.

At a screening of his film last night as part of Dartmouth's observance of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Rothe-Kushel noted that his picture "does a poor job of being an activist film." But it is just that lack of motive that makes the film so powerful.

The film was made during the summer after Rothe-Kushel's freshman year through a recearch grant from the College. Initially unsure of what he wanted the film to be, he entered the whole project with just a vague idea of what he wanted to achieve.

Initially, Rothe-Kushel talked to everyone he could find who could advise him on documentary film making.

"They all told me I should know my story and what I want to say ... before I go in," he said, "but I didn't want to do it that way."

So he went home and started filming, initially hesitantly. But eventually doing personal interviews with the men and women walking the streets on a daily basis.

The film centers largely around two very different homeless men.

The first of the two is Ted Hayes, a sort of paradox as a homeless activist. Hayes heads a number of organizations trying to promote the rights of the homeless.

Hayes is primarily focued on a project called Dome Villiage, a cluster of compact, durable geodesic domes that can be bought cheaply and quickly assembled. Hayes sees them as a way of potentially alleviating homelessness.

Hayes' concern for the homeless also manifests itself in political activism. The film follows Hayes and a group of supporters protesting at the Democratic National Convention.

One of the group's principal complaints is their treatment by the authorities. One man claims that the police "criminalize the homeless like they're going to be reformed in jail. ...[They're] discriminating against innocent people."

A stark illustration of this point was provided during the protest when Hayes was shot with a rubber bullet by a policeman at potentially lethal range. The story made the national news, as did Rothe-Kushel's footage.

Despite the incident, Hayes refused to blame the police, seeing them as necessary if progress was to be made in his campaign.

The other focal character of the film was Tyrone, who spent his days wandering the City of Angels digging through dumpsters searching for bottles and cans to recycle.

Unlike Ted Hayes, Tyrone seems much more resigned to his fate while at the same time deeply sorrowful about his situation. Rothe-Kushel skillfully weaves the scenes with Tyrone with those of Hayes, making a clear juxtaposition between the two.

Tyrone's story is the more touching of the two. Despite his perpetual sadness and occasional tears, he makes a powerful claim.

"I've still got my pride," he says, "I'm gonna try to hold onto it."

At other times, Tyrone, who articulately claims never to drink or do drugs, seems to take more confidence in divine judgment and spirituality.

He claims that despite his current situation, it is God who ultimately has power, not police or government. At another point, Tyrone criticizes the complacency of the vast majority of Americans on issues of homelesseness, noting that "Christ spent his time among the common people."

Several features set the film apart from many other documentaries.

For one thing, Rothe-Kushel decided not to use captions identifying his interviewees when they first appear onscreen, preferring to allow the characters to define themselves, rather than be assigned an identity by the filmmaker.

That decision is a microcosm of the film's artistic values on a larger scale. Rather than trying to claim a specific identity or voice as a filmmaker, Rothe-Kushel allows the personality of his documentary to be dictated by the people it is about.

As Rothe-Kushel himself admitted, the film does not try to convey a specific message about the homeless; it is just about making people humans again. And in this regard, the film comes through with flying colors. Rather than stooping to the arrogance of imposed voice and diluted meaning, "Pharaoh's Streets" demands the viewer's attention not because of its politics but because its subject matter is -- in the purest sense of the word -- real.