by Annette Basile
Worth: $14.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Paul Beagley, Richard, Cam, Peter, Amanda Donahoe, Mahdi
Intro:
... important, fairly hopeful and very watchable ...
This hour-long documentary has a quiet power. It tells personal stories from the fringes – men who have faced difficulties and have found a place to call home with Servants, a Melbourne social housing initiative that provides more than just a roof. There’s support, art therapy, gardening and even a beehive along with the beautifully compassionate staff. Servants operates four homes in the Victorian capital, one of which caters to women only and is not covered here.
Initially, the only context that’s given is in a few words on the screen about Melbourne’s housing crisis and people living in social housing being pushed to the margins. As the doco progresses, it becomes increasingly interesting, and the scope widens, as the men – and staff – tell their own stories in their own words. Phil talks about battling drug addiction, Richard has head trauma thanks to a king hit, and Mahdi shows off boxes and boxes of medications – for his pain, his heart, and his shaking hands. He takes 14 tablets each night, and tells of a motor accident when someone smashed into the back of his car, and of a wife who treated him badly.
One of Servants’ homes is located in Carrical House, a Hawthorn mansion that now houses almost 40 men. A group discussion that includes Servants’ CEO, Amanda Donahoe, lays bare the housing situation. One staff member’s comment stands out: “The distance between people in need of social housing and people struggling in the private rental market, or even with mortgages, is pretty wafer thin,” she says
Elsewhere, Phil addresses a group of school kids, who are later interviewed and reveal a level of empathy for the homeless that’s not reflected across society in general, while Julie, who lives across the road from Carrical, explains that having neighbours with diverse needs teaches her children acceptance.
Directed by cinematographer Samuel Kostevc, this is an important, fairly hopeful and very watchable film. Love In the Walls is, in some ways, a companion piece to the 2022 documentary, Under Cover, about older women facing homelessness. Along with the climate crisis, housing is the biggest issue facing Australians. Post-war, 16% of housing built was public housing but in the last decade, it’s dropped to a mere 1%, it’s said in the doco.
Despite the country now having a PM who famously tells us that he grew up in public housing and understands its importance, we are still waiting for a fix.
