january 23-30, 2002
greenbelt cinema 1, makati city metro manila, philippines www.mov.moviespage.com |
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Phil Berkowitz, a 55 year old street poet, survivor of the days of wine and roses with San Francisco's Beats, has a stroke. He lies in his flea bag hotel room in San Francisco's Tenderloin for four days, virtually paralyzed, until he is found by Johnny, his next door neighbor. Johnny, African-American, pushing 60, barely survives working part time janitorial in a seedy strip club and escort service. Phil is now helpless and cannot work to pay for his hotel room. Breaking hotel rules, Johnny lets the recovering Phil stay in his room and tries to help him regain his speech. He also tries to play cupid, introducing Phil to Svetlana, Polish, 35, a Tenderloin waitress, ex-model and recovering alcoholic. Svetlana feels sorry for Phil, but Phil mistakes kindness for attraction, a recipe for disaster. Thrown out of their hotel for breaking house rules, Johnny and Phil become homeless in San Francisco's chilly streets, aware that if anything were to happen to them, no one would even know they were gone. The people society has forgotten might as well be picked up by space ships. Unknown and unremembered, they just cease to exist. Director: Rob Nilsson |
