Susanna Helke
Born 1967, Finland. Her films are poetic reflections of the transcendence found in everyday moments in the lives of ordinary people. The films play with the borders of documentary and fiction, observational and re-enacted documentary. She co-directed, along with Virpi Suutari, the documentaries THE SIN (SYNTI - DOKUMENTTI JOKAPÄIVÄISISTÄ RIKOKSISTA, 1996), WHITE SKY (VALKOINEN TAIVAS, 1998), SOUPDEALER’S SUNDAY (SAIPPUAKAUPPIAAN SUNNUNTAI, 1999), THE IDLE ONES (JOUTILAAT, 2001, which received a nomination for the 2001 European Film Award for Best Documentary), ALONG THE ROAD LITTLE CHILD (PITKIN TIETÄ PIENI LAPSI, 2005). She alone directed the documentary short film PLAYGROUND (LEIKKIPUISTO, 2006), and AMERICAN VAGABOND.
Director’s statement
“When I was visiting San Francisco for the first time, someone told me that there were shelters intended especially for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth living on the streets. The concept puzzled me. Why, in America’s gay Mecca, were young queers living in shelters?”.
“A survey by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for Homelessness, published in 2007, revealed the epidemic nature of homelessness among young queers in the United States. Twenty to forty percent of homeless youth living in big cities belong to sexual minorities. The homophobia of family members or foster care parents is the main reason they leave home. Teens are coming out at younger ages but many of them end up in a conflict with their families. They run away to big cities to seek the support of the gay community”.
“The one essential American and global civil rights struggle of the 21st century is the fight for the rights of sexual minorities. The ‘marriage war’ has re-politicized not only the queer movement but also the whole issue of homosexuality. The ice is rapidly melting as state after state legalizes same-sex marriage, but whenever a change happens it causes recoil”.
“The homeless queer youth do not participate in gay marriage marches, and they don’t campaign for their societal rights. They have no society. They have been twice abandoned. They have fled their families or their families have discarded them. They have come to their own people in the promised city, but their people do not welcome them cluttering their streets. Particularly not now, as they fervently strive to take their place at the table with ‘normal’ middle-class America”.
“I wanted to make a film, which, in a poetic manner, would reflect the issue of homelessness among queer youth. I wanted to show the romantic icon of a gay vagabond in a new light. After getting to know James and Tyler, and eventually after getting to know James’s family, the story of the film took it’s own course. I wasn’t just dealing with “the issue” anymore. I had to learn once again how reality is always much more nuanced and complicated than political rhetoric”.
