NORTHAMPTON — Homelessness and panhandling have been talked-about issues in the city — from a 248-page report released last month written by the mayor’s Panhandling Work Group to the owner of a now-closed wine bar citing panhandling as a deterrent to downtown business.
Now, a local filmmaker offers another depiction of city homelessness — a short film that will premiere on Friday at The Parlor Room.
Directed and produced by Rio Contrada, “Outside” is about a homeless youth who tries to befriend a group of private school kids after they try to buy alcohol from a panhandler.
The film, which won grant funding from Northampton Open Media, is fiction, but Northampton serves as inspiration. “It is reminiscent of Northampton,” said Contrada, a Northampton native.
When Contrada, 28, moved from California to Northampton to help take care of his father before his death in November 2018, he did a lot of writing at Haymarket Cafe, which offers donation-funded, discounted meals to those who need them. “That’s where a lot of people experiencing homelessness hang out,” he said.
At the cafe, he would meet homeless people, like one man named Anthony. “We’d smoke a joint once in a while and I’d ask him about himself … The more conversations I was having, the more I thought I needed to make a film about this.”
Contrada then gave people experiencing homelessness money in exchange for sitting down to talk with him about it, and the conversations helped develop “Outside.” Filmed in Northampton and Shelburne Falls, the short film also includes four interviews with homeless people at the end of the piece.
In addition to those Contrada met at Haymarket Cafe, experiences with his late father, Fred Contrada, a longtime reporter at The Republican in Springfield, influenced him.
“He covered homelessness a lot. He sort of instilled that in me — to be curious and treat human beings like people. He used to bring me out, and if we had extra pizza from a party, we would try to give it to somebody on the street,” he said.
In creating “Outside,” Contrada said he learned a lot about homelessness.
“I learned how difficult emotionally it is for people to panhandle,” he said. “I think that’s important.”
Sometimes, Contrada hears misconceptions about panhandling, such as, “These people actually make a decent amount every day and then they go home to their apartments.
“I find that to be a really condescending viewpoint and out of touch,” he said. “It’s not easy for anybody to sit or stand on the sidewalk — particularly in a cold Massachusetts winter like we have — and ask people for money.”
That’s consistent with what the Mayor’s Panhandling Work Group concluded in its recent report, “A Downtown Northampton for Everyone: Residents, Visitors, Merchants, and People At-Risk.”
Contrada also said that people experiencing homelessness have a strong community. For example, he interviewed one man named Bob shortly after he became homeless and saw that other people on the streets had stepped up to help him.
“The community that homeless people have, particularly in Northampton, they really look out for each other,” Contrada said.
Doors open for “Outside” at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Parlor Room, and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds will go to Friends of the Hampshire County Homeless, a nonprofit, volunteer group that supports the Interfaith Emergency Shelter in the city.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.