HBO Asia Online Release
PHILIPPINES, DECEMBER 18, 2013 –
One of three nominees for this year’s Documentary Short Subject Oscar®,
REDEMPTION looks at a growing army of
jobless New Yorkers, whose treasures are found in trash. Created by Emmy®-winning
filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill, who spent months on the streets
getting to know the canners and gaining their trust before turning on the
cameras, this timely HBO Original Documentary REDEMPTION is presented amidst the ongoing debate over income
disparity in America, and premieres on Saturday, December 28 at 10pm,
exclusively on HBO SIGNATURE / HBO SIGNATURE HD.
 |
| Photo courtesy of HBO Asia |
While employed New Yorkers pass
by in a hurry on their way to and from work, “canners” eke out a meagre living
on the sidewalks of the city by collecting empty bottles and cans and dropping
them at redemption centres for five cents each. Former short-order cooks,
computer-sales executives and factory workers, these men and women turned to
canning after the economic downturn eliminated their livelihoods. Despite their
non-traditional livelihood, many canners have worked beside each other on
sidewalks for years, forming a unique sense of community.
“In the best of times for some,
there is a growing army of New Yorkers who survive scouring the sidewalks and
sifting through our city’s trash,” note Alpert and O’Neill. “As politicians
debate whether life in New York is a tale of two cities, REDEMPTION shows the Dickensian conditions at the growing bottom of
our city’s economy.”
Walter, a 60-year-old
Vietnam veteran, now a canner for a decade, watching the number of canners soar
as odd jobs that once supported the poor have disappeared. Like many unemployed
canners, he equates the odds of getting hired for a conventional job with “hitting
the lotto.”
Joe, another canner, says
that everyone seems to be down on their luck right now, while Susan, a former
computer-sales executive who turned to canning when she couldn’t get by on
Social Security, notes that the young people in the city hold the good jobs.
“What are we supposed to do?” asks Nuve, a devoted mother, intent on giving her
children a brighter future.
The days are exhausting and
the nights are dangerous for canners, especially those like Walter, who sleep
in public places such as park benches or even the redemption centres. Lilly, a
Chinese canner who speaks limited English, feels fortunate to have a home, but
shares her tiny one-bedroom apartment with six others and frequently works
through the night. The reality of life as a canner is so harsh that one ex-con considers
arrests to be “rescues,” because incarceration means three meals a day, a bath
and a job in a kitchen.
Says Susan, “I guess it’s
survival of the fittest,” a sentiment echoed in the words and actions of the men
and women who struggle to get by on the tiny sums the redemption centres offer
them. Many have canned for years and have no reason to remain hopeful, yet they
are, rising each day to sift through the waste of the city and survive another
day.
Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill’s
previous HBO projects include 2012’s “In
Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution”; the Emmy®-winning
“Baghdad ER” (2006); the Emmy®-nominated
“Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq” (2007)
and “Section 60: Arlington National
Cemetery” (2008); the Academy Award®-nominated “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of
Sichuan Province” (2009); and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award winner
“Wartorn: 1861-2010” (2010).
REDEMPTION was directed and produced by Jon
Alpert and Matthew O’Neill; edited by David Meneses; original music by Jonathan
Zalben; cinematography and audio by Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill. For HBO:
supervising producer, Jacqueline Glover; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.
REDEMPTION premieres in Asia on Saturday,
December 28 at 10pm on HBO SIGNATURE / HBO SIGNATURE HD.
Other
playtimes on HBO Signature: Monday, December 30 (7.35pm), Thursday, January 2 (5.30pm)
and Wednesday, January 22 (7.15pm).
# # #
About HBO ASIA
Singapore-based HBO Asia is able to bring
the best of Hollywood to Asia first because of its exclusive licensing deals
with major Hollywood studios - Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal
Studios and Warner Bros., as well as a large number of major independent
studios. HBO Asia has proprietary and award-winning HBO Original programs
that are produced exclusively for HBO viewers. HBO Asia offers a bouquet of
channels and services including 24-hour commercial-free subscription movie
channels in standard-definition and high-definition – HBO, HBO SIGNATURE, HBO
FAMILY, HBO HITS, CINEMAX and RED – as well as HBO GO and HBO ON DEMAND. HBO
Asia is the exclusive distributor of BabyFirst and WarnerTV in Asia and is
owned by HBO (a Time Warner company). Log on to www.hboasia.com for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment