![‘Dirty Feathers’ Is A Compassionate & Heartbreaking Look At Homelessness [Berlin Review]](https://cooncel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/dirty-feathers-is-a-compassionate-heartbreaking-look-at-homelessness-berlin-review_6049d4f9343f6.jpeg "‘Dirty Feathers’ Is A Compassionate & Heartbreaking Look At Homelessness [Berlin Review]")
Filmed in glossy black and white, and adopting a non-judgmental vérité approach, director Carlos Alfonso Corral’s debut is a humanizing look at a small section of the homeless population in El Paso, Texas. “Dirty Feathers,” is a short, but thematically rich, film about those on the margins of society. Foregrounding about a half dozen characters, as they wander the streets, often attempting to score drugs, Corral’s camera centralizes the complexity of his subjects, as they grapple with the day-to-day grind of their life. Moving in and out of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in El Paso, a shelter that many of Corral’s subjects have been barred from, “Dirty Feathers” avoids the polemical issues surrounding the intersection of drug addiction and homelessness, but nevertheless centralizes the humanity of the people who are often abandoned by the systems that are supposed to protect them.