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Homeless Cineaste Eric Moseley by Steven Middlestein
Homeless filmmaker, Eric Protein Moseley, works the street with his crew. photo: courtesy E. Moseley
"I LEARNED FILMMAKING FROM THE
school of hard knocks," notes homeless filmmaker, Eric Protein Moseley,"And from others whose parents had paid a large sum of money for them to go to film school. At least someone profited."
Moseley has started his film career literally "from the ground up." Indeed, that's the title of his autobiography, "Eric Protein Moseley From the Ground Up", which he is currently writing. It tells the story of how how he learned his craft without ever taking a single filmmaking class AND while living on the streets.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Moseley and his family soon moved to the West Coast, although by eight he was back in the Motor City. As a teenager, living in a depressed area, in a family well below the poverty line, he began to take on some bad habits. Eventually, finding himself on the streets with his young daughter.
Together they embarked on a skid row odyssey, which took them from coast to coast in hopes of finding the great American dream. Along the way, Moseley pursued his passion for cinema, taking in flicks whatever chance he had and getting in discussion with the occasional filmmaker he met.
After turning his life around, Moseley became a known across the country film maker on homeless issues. His first film, "Skid Row Journey" (2010), surveyed the scene around a street in downtown Los Angele known as Skid Row.
Even though his intentions were only to make a pilot for a reality show, he got over two hours of raw footage. While the film started in Los Angeles, it continued in New York and South Carolina, interviewing homeless people and exploring issues of poverty.
Eric Protein Moseley with his tall camera operator, always a good idea, and sound person. photo: courtesy E. Moseley
"Obviously, it was no longer a pilot for a reality show but a documentary" says Moseley.
Soon after that trip, Moseley decided that he didn't even want to get his movie on television for pay. When he witnessed a pregnant woman denied medical attention by paramedics in a New York shelter, where he was staying with his daughter, he snapped.
"The shelter would not let them in because of the horrible conditions of the facility," he said. He decided to do films with a purpose and not for revenue.
He moved to South Carolina and produced "Down But Not Out" a short exploring the homeless conditions in Columbia, South Carolina. His first film to be broadcast, it aired in several different cities across the country and on both coasts, leading him to be called by some the nation's first homeless filmmaker.
From there Moseley, produced another film titled "A Cry Out to Obama" (filmed in San Francisco) which was based on his filming of opinions on how President Barack Obama was doing during his first six months. The film aired in the nation's capitol during prime-time on WHUT out of Howard University and also at Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVAC) in San Francisco.
Moseley has recently produced another documentary titled "A 24 Hour Challenge to Mayor Mike McGinn" trying to get the mayor of Seattle to be homeless for one day to get a better understanding on what it is like.
More recently, Moseley has now turned his attention to becoming an author. He is currently working on his autobiography "From the Ground Up" which covers his childhood, how he became a filmmaker and how god has changed his life and helped him overcome homelessness,drugs, and gang banging.
"Someday, I would like to turn this book into a script and perhaps a motion picture," Moseley says. Considering what he has achieved thus far, it is not that unlikely.
To find out more about Moseley, google Eric Protein Moseley, or check his MySpace. Posted on Sep 30, 2011 - 10:06 AM