Homeless not Hopeless in America, featuring "Brook"

First-Time Filmmaker Walton’s Debut Film: Homeless Not Hopeless in America is a multi-award winning progressive sociological documentary which provides an up-close and vivid expression of the unreal realities, and street trenches of the impoverished environments many disenfranchised homeless Americans attempt to survive daily. Additionally, the film strongly illuminates how drug abuse is truly a mental disease that should be treated holistically, with modern medical and social services. Therefore, this emotional educational film depicts alarming statistics and substantiative research which prove that individuals should not be criminalized or incarcerated for suffering from a mental disorder (drug abuse) in which they greatly need rehabilitative assistance to overcome. Innovatively, this unprecedented documentary intensely shows how both the use of both Methamphetamine and Fentanyl have utterly destroyed the homeless population in Los Angeles, CA. In addition, the film highlights how city officials choose to ignore the longstanding damages associated with homelessness, by allowing drug use and drug abuse to be perpetuated, thus marginalizing those struggling in the country’s largest homeless population. Unfortunately, many homeless individuals in Los Angeles are unjustly denied the due process of adequate medical and social services that could significantly assist their lives or cure their sicknesses.

In a heart-touching manner, one of the main characters, a Criminologist and Social Scientist GREGORY WALTON II, both interviews and follows (documenting) his subject BROOK who is the films primary subject and the other main character. Sadly, Brook is currently a homeless individual in Los Angeles, CA, which is known as the nation’s worst places to reside for those who suffer from homelessness, drug abuse and mental health issues. Brook was born in Ethiopia, Africa, and claims he came to America with hopes of being a Hollywood star. Brook ultimately, got married and started a family in Oakland, CA, but after 17 years of marriage, things fell apart in his family life, causing him to explore drugs as a coping mechanism to ease the pain. Unfortunately, these decisions led Brook to engaging in a lifestyle of criminality and drug sales, which resulted in Brook spending years in a California state prison for multiple drug related crimes.

Inspiringly, although he has been seriously addicted to drugs and homeless for nearly 20 years, Brook is still an intelligent homeless man who displays integrity and several positive traits typically not found in those who abuse drugs or suffer from untreated traumas. Each day, he not only cleans (sweeps) the streets in his near vicinity daily, but he works at local stores as a doorman to earn a few bucks a day to survive his disadvantaged circumstances. Fascinatingly, at the age of 52, Brook also serves as a Mentor and Gatekeeper in his local homeless community and is greatly respected by his peers. Passionately, Gregory Walton II’s objectives are to show how Brook still has dignity, the cognitive competence, as well as high hopes to one day overcome his setbacks and adversities. Wholeheartedly, the films other goals are to share Brook’s life journey to inspire the world, and how he is a prime example that all homeless individuals are not hopeless, and still desire to attain their American Dream. Also, Walton and Brook pray that this film will eventually assist Brook with obtaining sufficient resources, and a realistic opportunity to enroll into a drug rehab facility with vocational training available.

In closing, Walton passionately shares his personal story of being homeless as a college student pursuing his bachelor’s degree in California during the Covid pandemic. Understandably, Walton’s homelessness, was during unprecedented times, when college students were denied access to their campuses due to Covid-19 quarantine restrictions. Surprisingly, Walton overcame years of homelessness, and also obtained his master’s degree in Criminal Justice from USC.