NaFF09 – Empress Hotel
Allie Light, Roberta Goodman & Irving Saraf
The Empress Hotel, a project of the San Francisco Department of Health, is home to a rarified clientele: sufferers of mental illness or addiction who have lived on the streets. Not every person can stay on meds or get clean, yet out of chaos and hopelessness, a community is formed. The tenants are vulnerable and stubbornly irascible. Some are honest, some duplicitous and all–including the therapists, nurses and doctors who serve them? understand how deep addiction is and how hard it is to give up. As Roberta Goodman, hotel manager says, ‘I don’t have anything to offer that’s better than the feeling you get from, what I’m told, the first time you smoke crack. And everybody’s trying to get back to that first time.’ Empress Hotel tells the stories of ten residents, their interactions, celebrations, successes, and setbacks.
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