Neighborhood Film Co.

Late last year, over coffee at Prince Street Café during a return trip to Lancaster, my friend David told me about some friends of his who run a film company in Philadelphia that employs adults in recovery from homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. I knew right away that I needed to write about the Neighborhood Film Company for Christianity Today‘s This Is Our City project.

The story was published today, and here’s how it starts:

Ricky Staub and Anders Lindwall’s move to Philadelphia was a step of faith. Staub had worked for several years with a film producer in Hollywood, and Lindwall had been directing freelance video projects. Despite the opportunities they had found early in their careers, they nonetheless moved to the City of Brotherly Love in 2011 with “unsettled hearts.”

When they arrived, they initially stayed at Project H.O.M.E., a nonprofit serving the homeless population of the city of 1.5 million. There, they formed deep friendships with a handful of adults recovering from addiction and incarceration.

For young filmmakers concerned with an issue like homelessness, making a documentary to raise awareness would seem a natural place to start. But for Staub and Lindwall, homelessness had become more than an issue, but rather a tangible, pervasive force in the lives of their friends, and they wanted to be part of actually stopping it.

You can read the rest of the story here.