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Produced, written, and directed
by Gerard Thomas Straub
Introduction to the Film
This 37-minute film, narrated by Martin Sheen, is a photographic meditation on the plight of the poor and our responsibility to help. Gerard Thomas Straub spent months living among the poor in the impoverished sections of 29 cities in nine nations: India, Brazil, Kenya, Jamaica, the Philippines, Mexico, Italy, Canada, and the US. The photographs, which document the life of the poorest of the poor, including a leper colony in Brazil, are taken from a startling and disquieting series of 250 intensely personal black-and-white photographs contained in Gerry's book, When Did I See You Hungry? Gerry uses the camera as an instrument of contemplation, and his photographs, with wordless gentleness, allow us to see more closely things we know about but are not attentive to. More than just capturing the agony of life in the slums, Gerry’s photographs reveal the hidden humanity of the poor, their spirit of joy, and their will to survive. |
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Gerry's own statements expressing his deeply held and courageously lived out religious convictions, as well as equally compelling statements from other religious leaders (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Abraham Joshua Heschel), and his poignant visuals disturb and challenge viewers at many levels. Gerry makes us see what we would rather not. His film engages us emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and behaviorally. He invites us to feel and empathize more deeply, to think more critically, to pray more faithfully, and to act more courageously. His personal witness is as inspiring as it is troubling. As an expression of the Gospel, Gerry’s life and films are indeed “good news for the poor.” But they await the viewers’ response to become even “better news for the poor.”
A Note from the Filmmaker, Gerry Straub
The experience of making this film, of traveling to and living in the worst slums in nine nations over an 18-month period, forever changed me. I’ve seen the film hundreds of times as I present it at high schools and colleges across the nation, and every time I see it I am pushed to the verge of tears and challenged by my own words. The film is uncompromising and relentlessly hard. I am still struggling to live the truth I discovered in these dreadful places. But this I know for sure: I am eternally grateful for the lessons I learned from the poor and I pray that I shall never forget my own true poverty and my need for God. While some of the images in the film are tough to look at, they are, however, not meant to make you feel downcast or ashamed or guilty. I am not interested in shaming anyone into helping the poor. I simply want to show you their life, a life lived without the basic essentials we take for granted.
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