Cinema’s Daniel Cross brings social media to street people
It has been said that homelessness can befall anyone. This would include Department of Cinema Assistant Professor Daniel Cross, who doesn’t dwell much on his own brief experience on the streets. Instead, Cross has championed a new-media career that tackles the issue, including the online project called Homeless Nation. “I created the site as a first-person experience, taking away the voice of the ‘other’ in order to define and legitimize that experience,” he says.
Cross is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Cross’s Homeless Nation project was inspired by his work on the film SPIT: Squeegee Punks in Traffic (2001), which takes a street’s-eye-view of some of Montreal’s homeless and disenfranchised individuals.
Cinema’s Daniel Cross is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and heads Homeless Nation, which provides internet access—and a voice—to the homeless. Homeless Nation won a 2008 award from the Society for New Communications Research Excellence based in Palo Alto, Calif., and a 2008 Canadian New Media award.
In 2004, Homeless Nation went live, both on- and off-line. The virtual version starts by providing homeless people with access to the internet. Outreach workers place donated computers in shelters and drop-in centres and provide training on how to use them. HomelessNation.org features its own slant on Facebook as a social networking site that contains resources, live feeds, debate and the launch of films, images and podcasts. It is also a hub for its nomadic members to stay in touch with loved ones and a means to educate family and friends who access the site to look for missing relatives or make donations.
The project also taps into support from volunteers, outreach workers, community groups and film co-ops to assist homeless people through workshops, internet access and, even, with camera equipment. “This is self-esteem through self-expression. People are given soup and shelter but the rest of society doesn’t attend to them,” Cross says.
Homeless Nation’s network includes more than 4,000 full-time members. Administered under the non-profit Homeless Street Archive, Homeless Nation has developed chapters and representatives in Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and St. John’s.
Still, its future is uncertain. Homeless Street was launched with financial support from the National Film Board of Canada, the Canada Council, the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund and Quebec’s Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture. But its pilot funding ends this year and Cross is scrambling to strike new partnerships. “We’re at the point where we have the database and the social network. Now it’s time to mine that research and see how it can be used with institutions, government departments and community groups,” Cross says.
“This is a model to show that street people can control their own voice and media representation. Coming directly from the source is the best way for us to get this information and to research issues for solutions that work.”
Visit HomelessNation.org for more information or to make a donation to the project.
