1969 Man Loses Business Because “A Woman Took Him Over“. Homeless In New York City

The time was 1969. This clip was recorded on the streets of New York City. According to one of the gentleman speaking, he owned a retail store and was doing okay until “a woman took him over“. Now he is homeless and a drunk. Back then, filming on the streets of New York City was fun. Everything was new. Everything and almost every one had not been filmed before. The 16mm rig that I used was heavy and recording took a two man crew (with my soundman holding a boom) but the results you could get just by turning on the camera and talking with folks was always “real“. The young man on the street in this clip is David Silver and he became quite famous for his television shows on PBS. Search his name on my YouTube channel and you will find more samples of his incredible work. As my subscribers know, I am disturbed by the current number of homeless folks in America everywhere that I visit including my home town. When I stop to talk with homeless folks, some want to be on the streets but most do not. Some are lifelong drug addicts but most are not. A surprising number have actually lost their homes because they couldn’t pay their mortgages or rents. Very sad and at least for me, without an easy answer that I could offer to solve the problem. David Hoffman filmmaker