Short documentary looks at gay/trans youth homelessness

Neat, and sad story.

We had no idea that between 20 and 40 percent of youths on the streets identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender,” Erlinger says. “[Austin] really opened up and made us aware of the circumstances surrounding homeless youths and what they faced.”

The filmmaking connected them not only to people making a difference, but also to the homeless youths they were working to help. Cooper, recalling the first time they distributed socks during a day of shooting, reports, “Lily and I had a cooler full of socks, and these kids would hold the pairs up to their faces and smell the cotton!” They later learned that most homeless young people rarely took off their shoes and socks and would wear down a pair in a week. “We had no idea how important socks were,” she adds.

Other encounters proved more sobering. Eighteen-year-old Samantha, who had left an abusive home at 13, “shared some terrible stories,” Erlinger remembers. At the same time, she notes the dignity of the people they met. “Some of these kids are not making great decisions, but if any of us were in that same situation, 90 percent of us would be making similar ones,” she adds. “I mean, in another lifetime, this kid could’ve gone to Harvard.”

Looking back on all the disparate individuals they met on their trip, the women draw similar conclusions from the experience. Although they are now pursuing different paths—Erlinger is attending film school in Germany and Cooper is working at an American law firm in Paris—both view their journey as a rare chance to learn about gratitude. “What I take away is how incredibly grateful and lucky I feel,” says Cooper. “I’m coming away with an awareness about my own circumstances and an even greater appreciation for the opportunities I have.” With their eight-minute documentary now live on the No Nonsense Facebook page, they hope, above all, that it makes visible an issue that receives little attention. “It’s remarkable how often we walk past these different worlds existing within individual bubbles,” Erlinger says. “We wanted this film to be bubble-breaking.”