During my first semester at Minerva University I lived in San Francisco in the Tenderloin neighborhood. This area of the city is infamous for having for high rates of crime, drug abuse and homelessness. We were always not to turn left on Turk Street, as that area was considered dangerous. Two friends of mine and I decided not to follow this advice. To make sense of the unsettling reality we were witnessing, we walked through the neighborhood and recorded some of the stories we discovered. The result is a short (25 minutes) documentary that hopes to offer a glimpse into the complexity of the area. We still do not have answers to many questions surrounding the Tenderloin, but we hope to start a more nuanced conversation. The Tenderloin is dangerous yet welcoming, full of suffering and contradictions, but also of colorful, vibrant, and beautiful people. And they have a lot to say.
During the process of making this documentary, I felt very powerless. I was exposed to all this suffering and injustice but had no idea what I could do to help. I didn’t even know if it was right for me to engage in personal relationships with these people. We eventually cultivated a deeper relationship with Janet and Patrita, two women that we had interviewed for the documentary. Hearing their stories, witnessing their strength and their unbreakable ability to forgive was astonishing for me. Yet, it was still a very unbalanced exchange. I was learning a lot, inspired by their stories and their ability to not give up, to still laugh and forgive. But what were we giving them?
We went into something we didn’t understand, we don’t know if our presence in their lives was beneficial or not, we don’t know what’s gonna happen when we come back.
These interactions and conversations often left me with a deep sadness, confusion and helplessness, which I didn't know how to navigate. At the end, we decided to do what felt most natural, which is to simply share their stories through the medium of film.
We’re not experts on the Tenderloin and we’re not proposing solutions. All we did is provide the medium and platform for these stories to be amplified. Our goal was simply to show some of the color, complexity, and beauty of the Tenderloin. All we hoped to do is show the humanity we experienced. This documentary is simply food for thought and an invite to practice empathy.
Doing some self-reflection, I realized how making this project and deciding to listen to these stories was only possible thanks to the human skills of empathy and dialogue that I learned while studying at EMIS and working for the Charney Resolution Center, which I will forever be grateful for.
If you’re interested, you can watch the full documentary below
'Left on Turk' is a documentary that shares the stories of the people of the Tenderloin. Their voices form a mosaic of injustice and suffering but also of hope and love, shedding a new light on this area of San Francisco.