Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son
Lorna Tucker returns to the streets of her homelessness to highlight the issues of her personal and heartfelt documentary.
Homelessness is such a major concern in the UK that there will be a warm welcome for this documentary which in the course of spotlighting it makes the strongest possible plea for steps to be taken that will improve the situation. It is no surprise that Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son should be so heartfelt because it is also personal in a special way. The filmmaker is Lorna Tucker who follows up earlier documentaries with this one in which she appears on screen and talks of her own experience of being homeless and even refers to her own suicide bid by jumping from London's Waterloo Bridge.
While Tucker opens up about her own past tribulations, this is mainly in the second half of the film and earlier on it concentrates on a number of people who are given the opportunity to tell their own and related stories. London may often feature here but those central to the film include Jamie from Glasgow and Earl from North Shields, the latter being somebody who has overcome a troubled past including addiction but is now a support worker for the homeless. Others featured here – all of them identified by their first name only - include Darren, Emma, Omar and Laura, each with their own tale. Some speak of domestic abuse and there is much talk of involvement with drink and drugs. But in that context another person seen here is John Bird, now Baron Bird, co-founder of The Big Issue and he is keen to stress that when the homeless turn to these resources it is their way of seeking an escape, a solution to their problems if only temporarily. That is to say that his viewpoint endorsed by the film is that the real problem lies not in the drink and drugs but in the social conditions that contribute to making homelessness so prevalent. It's also the case that when the subject of taking heroin comes up an addiction specialist confirms that he sees addiction as "an illness, a progressive illness".
Three elements come into play in this film: the personal stories that describe what the homeless have to cope with, the examples of help given (whether by individuals or by bodies such as Housing First and the now sadly defunct North East Homeless) and a separate and distinct section that emerges late on. The latter finds Lorna Tucker talking to key figures involved in seeking to help the homeless (they speak as past or present representatives of such bodies as Shelter, Crisis, Impact and The Connection at St. Martin’s). This discussion points to possible ways forward but, even if they aim for real change within ten years, it may be that the reluctance of politicians to engage is so established that there is excessive optimism even in this.
I have stressed the film’s concerns and the ground covered because for many that will be far more important than any assessment of its quality as filmmaking. As a critic I do find Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son a film that could have gained from far better structuring. As it is we jump regularly back-and-forth between the central homeless figures when more concentration on one at a time would have added clarity and weight to their individual stories. It is rather off-putting too that, despite appearing fully on screen later, Lorna Tucker is first glimpsed in half-obscured images and not fully identified. Once John Bird appears he takes on a central role for a time and one feels that he could have been made a useful anchor for the whole of the film’s first hour with his comments leading on to the individual testimonies about homelessness. Later on, Tucker herself becomes a kind of pivot, but the scenes of her talking to executive figures involved in charity work play like a television discussion. After that the film reverts back to Earl, Jamie and the others by way of a climactic speech by Lorna herself direct to camera - it feels like a conclusion but actually proves not to be. As a critic who looks for adroit structuring in documentary films, these points mattered to me but I am well aware that many would regard them as quibbles. What is certainly the case is that Someone's Daughter, Someone's Son speaks from the heart and will in turn reach the hearts of all those who have been hoping for a film about homelessness in Britain today.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Lorna Tucker, The Lord Bird, Baroness Louise Casey, Earl, Darren, Jamie, Emma, Laura, Omar, Leanne and Colin Firth as narrator.
Dir Lorna Tucker, Pro Claire Lewis and Christopher Hird, Ph Sam Brown, Ed David Potter, Music Robin Schlochtermeier.
MBK Productions/Dartmouth Films/Raindog Films-Dartmouth Films.
87 mins. UK. 2022. UK Rel: 16 February 2024. Cert. 15.
