The Public--A Movie Dealing With The Rights of the Homeless

Today I saw a newly released movie called The Public.  It takes place at the downtown Cincinnati Public Library, and was actually filmed there which lends it authenticity.  Emilio Estevez directed The Public, wrote the script and starred in it.  So it was  obviously a project that he felt was of urgent importance.  He did an advance screening of the movie at the American Library Association's annual conference in 2018.  Here's a report on that screening from Information Today.

The events in this film are fictional, but I could easily imagine that they might actually happen.  The Public takes place during a bitterly cold winter in which some of the homeless were freezing to death because there weren't enough beds in Cincinnati's homeless shelters.  Seventy homeless men decided to occupy the library as a protest.   This was a desperate unplanned action.   These men just didn't want to die and didn't know what else to do.

Although the central theme of the movie was the rights of the homeless, I felt that it was also a struggle over who would control the public narrative about this event.   Would it be the compassionate and principled librarian, Stuart Goodson, (portrayed by Emilio Estevez) who wanted the action to be perceived as a non-violent protest in the tradition of  Gandhi and MLK?  Would it be the image obsessed prosecutor, Josh Davis, (portrayed by Christian Slater) who wanted this event to be perceived as a hostage crisis which required the intervention of a SWAT team?  Josh Davis' false narrative  brought the issue of the over-militarization of local law enforcement to the fore as well.

While this movie is of particular interest to those concerned about the homeless, The Public has so much immediacy that all moviegoers are likely to feel that it has tremendous impact.