No Money Was Harmed In The Making Of This Film

Anthony Milas
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read

While living in an apartment in central Auckland City, I realised one day that the many homeless people living, begging or busking on the streets were actually my neighbours, no more and no less than the “ordinary people” housed in the shoe-boxes next to mine. Also, “homeless” was a strange descriptor. All of these people living in parks, under bridges or out of shopping carts, they had homes. Their homes just looked different, and — perhaps to their credit — were significantly more affordable.

This thought changed me. Shortly after, I started talking to my new-found neighbours, and quickly made friends. Unexpectedly, I discovered this seemed to hold a strange power. I felt like I was stepping into another world, and meeting — what were to me — the alien beings who dwelled there. I learned their customs, their language, about their concerns and methods of dealing with them, I learned of their successes, their failures. I began to experience a sense of belonging more and more to a parallel society I hadn’t realised existed, physically co-located in mine, yet far outside it in other ways. As I connected with them, I could also see these people starting to feel more like they belonged in “my” world too.

I saw how simply making friends appeared to help — change them — as it helped and changed me. There were times these interactions were the highlight of my day, and times that feeling seemed reciprocated. I saw them ask for and take my advice, as I asked for and took theirs. While some of them were undoubtedly unusual — and very occasionally at least slightly dangerous—most turned out to be just regular people, in unusual situations. Many immediately struck me as intelligent and well-informed, with surprisingly understandable reasons for their choices. Almost all were deep-thinkers or philosophers, questioning society and the way we live. Moreover, as well as the easily-assumable negatives, their unconventional lifestyles came with positives I’d never considered: a feeling of freedom, of existing outside the heartless daily machinations of the system; the cathartic rebelliousness — the overdue simplicity, even pride — of deciding that your home is where ever you fucking well are and the consequences be damned.

Of course, that’s not to say any of them were 100% happy with their living situation, but how many are in ordinary society? Interacting with them over the ensuing months, I saw my friends grow in new directions, as I saw myself. Some found new ways to survive, moving off the streets and into hostels, spurred by aspirations our conversations nurtured — and I joined them. I could afford my own home, but the choice to eschew this luxury, and instead live amongst travellers in an inner city hostel with my new friends had many social positives that have profoundly impacted my life to this day. Our initial differences, and how they reduced over time, revealed how easy it is to influence the life of another person just by engaging in regular amicable conversation. I was left to wonder why this apparent distance between me and them was there in the first place.

I made this film as a kind of thank you to that experience, and to what myself and these alleged homeless tapped into at the heart of Auckland City’s discord of inequality: a strange potential. I edited it to a song I recorded at the time about standing on your own feet in whatever way you want to, realising whatever shadow you have has a light source, and fuck what anyone else says. I guess it’s a music video, but to me it’s more a documentary of what happens when two seemingly disparate worlds are connected over what is presumed to separate them. One “rich” world, one “poor” world, and something keeping them apart; for as long as we believe it.

Film Credits

Camera by Ashley Pitman, Andy Johnson & Anthony Milas
Directed by Anthony Milas

Thanks to Kasia Marcisz, Ultraman, Hannah McQ, Scarecrow Cafe, Stephen Hardy, Luke Hurley, Brett Origami, Haru Kagawa, Kristyna Hybalova, Jonathan & Melanie Dower, Surf N Snow Backpackers and Topic Rentals.

Special thanks to John MacDonald for believing in me, and all at Lifewise.

Music Credits

Guitar/Yelling by Anthony Milas
Bass/Handjobs by Ultraman
Pawcussion by Joshua Worthington-Church

Recorded @ Scheduled For Demolition, Auckland
Engineered by Anthony Milas
Produced by Super Music Team

Special thanks to Stavroz Inramouski for letting us street kids party in his pool.

No money was harmed in the making of this film.

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Anthony Milas

Written by

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