Tag Archives: Lost in America

Indican Pictures Acquires North American Rights to Rosario Dawson’s Youth Homelessness Doc “Lost in America”

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Rosario Dawson is ready to shine a greater spotlight on youth homelessness in the U.S. in theaters around the country.

Indican Pictures has acquired the North American distribution rights to the documentary Lost in America, executive produced by the 40-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American actress/activist and Jewel.

Rosario Dawson

Directed by Rotimi Rainwater, the documentary feature is the first film to take a national look at the issue of youth homelessness in America, highlighting the main issues that surround it: sex trafficking, the failure of the foster care system, and the rampant rejection of LGBTQ youth. 

The doc is slated for a theatrical release in November.

Lost In America follows director Rainwater, a former homeless youth, on his six-year journey to shine a light on the issue of youth homelessness.

The film features interviews with more than 30 youth in 15 cities, as well as politicians and public figures including Tiffany Haddish, Halle Berry, Jon Bon Jovi, Miley Cyrus, Sanaa Lathan,Rebecca Gayheart-Dane. 

The film gives an unflinching, honest look at what these youth have to endure just to survive, and why as a nation, this is one epidemic we just didn’t see coming. It also examines what many organizations and politicians are doing (or not doing) to help these youth in order to answer one major question:   how, in the wealthiest country in the world, can 4.2 million youth experience homelessness every year?

“It took me 25 years to talk about my time on the streets, and this film is the result of my six-year journey to not only reconcile what I went through, and to hopefully help ensure that no other youth have to experience being homeless,” said Rainwater. “I am humbled and honored that it will finally be coming out. And I hope that it helps educate Americans to the truth of youth homelessness, and helps engage and enrage all of us to be a voice for those who truly need one.”

Rotimi is a writer-director and producer known for his narrative feature Sugar which was loosely based on his time on the streets. After screening the film for homeless youth organizations around the country, and even for Congress, Rotimi was inspired to make Lost In America.

“This is not just a film, it’s a call to action. This represents our chance to give those left on the streets a fighting chance to simply live a humane life,” said Randolph Kret,CEO and founder of Indican Pictures. “The first step is creating ongoing awareness, and Lost in America marks this first step.”

Rosario Dawson to Appear in the Homeless Youth Documentary “Lost in America”

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Rosario Dawson is raising awareness about homeless youth.

The 38-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American actress and activist will appear in the upcoming documentary about homeless youth called Lost in America, executive-produced by Miley Cyrus and Russell Simmons.

Rosario Dawson

Dawson will appear in the Rotimi Rainwater-directed film alongside Cyrus, Halle Berry, Jewel, Jon Bon Jovi, Sanaa Lathan and Rebecca Gayheart-Dane.

“I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would get this many people to shine a light on youth homelessness,” says Rainwater, who himself was a former homeless youth. “It’s phenomenal but also truly needed to make others aware of the problem.”

He noted that about 5,000 youth die each year on American streets from homelessness. “That’s 13 who die every day. It’s like Columbine happening every single day.”

Las Vegas will be the host town for Intersections: The 2017 Southern Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit taking place Nov. 2 and Lost In America’s Rainwater will be speaking. It’s being sponsored by Las Vegas Sands Corp. and the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth.

Lost in America follows the four-year journey of Rainwater and his team as they interviewed more than 30 youth in 15 cities, from the drainage tunnels of Denver to the streets of Orlando, you can continue reading about how it can be helpful – where Rainwater lived homeless for almost a year after getting discharged from the Navy to take care of his mother who was battling cancer.

While growing up in New York City, Dawson’s mother moved the family into an abandoned building, a squat on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she and her husband renovated an apartment and installed the plumbing and electrical wiring for the building, creating affordable housing where Rosario and Clay would grow up. Dawson has cited this part of her history when explaining how she learned that, “If you wanted something better, you had to do it all yourself.”