Skid Row Musuem
“Passing Through” – Directed by Leslie Dektor and produced by Tom MacMaster
Q&A with Manuel Compito, Leslie Dektor and Tom MacMaster and others.
This beautiful movie is back because of popular demand: COME SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN’T HAD THE CHANCE YET!
Los Angeles Poverty Department’s Movie Nights at the Museum:
Free movie screenings, free popcorn, free coffee & free conversation. Every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month, we screen movies about issues that are important to our Skid Row and downtown community at the #skidrowmuseum.
Passing Through focuses on an art studio that was initially launched in Los Angeles’s Skid Row that, for years, offered the disenfranchised an opportunity to discover their creative voice and the dispossessed a sense of belonging. For decades, the poor and marginalized have been herded and confined to Skid Row but many found refuge, comfort and even a path to a new life there.
Leslie Dektor, a 2-time winner and 13-time nominee of the DGA Director of the Year Award, was inspired to embark upon Passing Through in part due to the research he’d been doing for a film on the Great Depression. Dektor saw parallels between the subjects in those photos and the poor and dispossessed in Los Angeles while also recognizing the power of art to bring light and hope to the darkest times.
Proceeds from Passing Through will be donated to the Art Works Continuum as well as other organizations that serve the unhoused population and support the arts in Los Angeles.
Please visit our website for more information: https://www.passingthroughfilm.com/
Pre-Order available on iTunes : https://apple.co/2F9X4ee
Manuel Compito aka OG Man is a Homeless Advocate and Community Organizer, an author and highly skilled and gifted Fine Artist. He is a husband, father and grandfather. He has been featured in several documentaries including “Lost Angels,” “Humble Beauty,” and “Passing Through” as well as numerous other documentaries available on YouTube which feature his works.
Manuel learned to draw as a child from his brother. He would later spend a considerable amount of time cultivating his talents during a lengthy period of incarceration. Even today, Manuel’s artwork derives from sketches based on his visual life experiences. Art serves as the nexus of his ideas, projects, programs and writings. “Art is my passion. Being of Service is my calling. Skid Row is ‘Ground Zero’ when it comes to community organizing. It’s the right place and the right time for those who want to make a difference.” says Manuel Compito.
This mindset has been the motivating force which led to Manuel’s creation of the award-winning Skid Row 3on3 Streetball League, grass-roots organizations such OG’s N Service Association, Skid Row Brigade, Operation Facelift-SkidRow, Skid Row Artist Collective aka Hidden Treasures and “Peace- N-Hood,” a neo-novel and coloring book for the urban area.
