Hometown Homeless

Sun., November 15th – 6:00 PM – SMALL THEATER

Documentary Screening + Panel Discussion

HOMETOWN HOMELESS (2025, 20 min., dir. Maleah Welsh).

Co-Presented with the Association of Faith Communities of Santa Cruz and The Coalition to End Homelessness

HomeTown HomeLess is a collaborative documentary film which takes place in the Potrero district of Santa Cruz California. A space that is the industrial zone of the city, the site of cement plants, garbage processing facilities, graveyards, discarded train tracks and homeless shelters. As the industrial zone ends, the redwood forest begins. Deep in the trees is where we find unhoused poet Momma Shannan and her community of resilient women, who have found a place for themselves out of the public eye.

Facing uncertain and precarious circumstances driven by rising laws that criminalize homelessness, the women come together to have conversations about life, love, loss. Anchored by moments of poetry and propelled by both the women's conversations and events within the community, HomeTown HomeLess offers an intimate portrait of both people and place.

Discussion following with director Maleah Welsh and participants in the documentary.

In-Kind Donations

We're encouraging attendees to bring physical items to donate on the day of the screening. These donations will go directly to the women and may include, but are not limited to:

• Clothing: Warm coats, warm clothing, and socks
• Gift cards: REI, Ross, grocery stores, food retailers, and other useful services
• Camping and outdoor supplies: Tents, tarps, batteries, flashlights, propane, candles, and portable camping toilets
• Personal care items: Toiletries, hygiene products, tampons, and other feminine care products

Bio:

Maleah Welsh is a Santa Cruz-based documentary filmmaker, photographer, and social justice activist. Working in both analog and digital media, she first discovered her love for image-making in the darkroom—a tactile and meditative process that continues to shape her visual approach. Her background in photography informs a filmmaking practice rooted in careful composition, texture, and visual intimacy.

Maleah’s current work centers on the stories of unhoused women, exploring the layered experiences of displacement, resilience, and belonging. She weaves poetry, sound, and other artistic modalities into her films to evoke emotion and reflect the complexity of her subjects’ inner worlds. Guided by a deep belief in the power of storytelling, she seeks not only to challenge prevailing narratives but to offer space for reflection, connection, and dignity. Through her practice, she explores themes of collective memory, the meaning of home and land, and the intimate objects that tether us to our histories, identities, and sense of belonging.

Maleah holds a master’s degree in Documentary Film from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she completed the MFA in Social Documentation.

$10 Suggested Donation.