Long-term unemployment in the United States

According to an article that ran in the Washington Post at the end of September, 2013, some 4.1 million people in the United States had been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks.  These people are now known as "long-term unemployed."  On Dec. 2, USA Today, using a slightly different standard (6 months rather than 27 weeks) gave the same figure for "long-term unemployed," and noted that many of them had also lost their ability to purchase food stamps on Nov. 1 when that program was cut back.

On Dec. 28, at least a quarter of these long-term jobless will lose their unemployment benefits unless Congress takes action to extend existing programs.  And nearly a million more are slated lose them between January and March.

What will happen to these people?

In "Domino," our unemployed hero tries pawning the family's jewelry.

Well, one of the first things that happens is you try to get help from other family members, and from close friends.  But if you've been out of work for six months or more, chances are that you will already have gone that route and there won't be much help available.

Next thing is you pawn the family's jewelry, take whatever odd job you can find, and try to downsize, but again, you've probably already done all of those things.

Next thing that can easily happen is - you become homeless.

And you become part of an increasingly vicious cycle.  If you're homeless, it's much harder to get a job.  Harder for you to spruce yourself up for a job interview.  Harder for you to have an address to give to a potential employer.  Harder for you to afford a cell phone so that a potential employer can contact you for an interview.

And harder for you to have the frame of mind you need, when and if you can line up a job interview.

Is it right for us to simply push these people, and this problem, aside?  I think not.

And that is the point of my film Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  We need to really understand what these people are going through, so that we will help find solutions.  It is morally, socially, and economically wrong to throw in the towel on millions of our fellow citizens, on millions of our fellow human beings.

One scene re-shot, then WRAP!

I decided that one earlier scene was a little thin, so we re-shot it. Same actors, same location, with changes in the dialogue and the action. There are a few photos below from the re-shoot. And that was the last of the shooting for "Domino." The editing has also been completed, meaning that we are, as of November 2013, at rough cut stage. The technicians need to go over the sound and the image to correct errors, and then it will be done. I think by the end of 2013, we'll officially have a completed film.

Above is Luis (played by Antonio de la Malena) earning some extra cash by moving furniture for a neighbor. Guess who the furniture belonged to - the widow. But Luis doesn't know.

Here is Luis asking the neighbor what he needs to do next.

Finally, in the very last scene we shot (but not the final scene of the movie), here is the hard-working crew working hard.

More photos - more scenes

In out last news post, we said we had finished shooting. WRONG! Turns out that not only was the film about 3 minutes too short to qualify for some important stuff, but also, there was one point that needed to be made a little clearer. So we shot a bit more, in fall of 2012. Here are two photos from the scene making that point.

Above is an actress (Encarnacion Margado, playing the widow) getting into costume, her husband (real husband) looking on.

And above, you see the widow with her friend (played by Maria Duarte)on the street. The widow has just been evicted from her home of 50 years. Note that this is happening for real in Spain...and in the U.S.!

Vampires and Zombies - shades of foreclosures

Apparently, if you lose your home and then continue to live in it while paying rent to the bank that foreclosed on you, you may be harming the economy...part of a problem known as vampire foreclosures. But if you vacate your home, you may be hurting the economy by contributing to the number of zombie foreclosures. Cannot win for losing. LINK

Two photos from the last scene we shot

Now that we´ve finished shooting, we thought you might enjoy seeing photos for the last scene we shot, which I think of as Luis and the furniture. It's where a neighbor (played by Salvador Valle) asks our hero (played by Antonio de la Malena) to do an odd-job for him. The odd-job is moving furniture. Here, we're shooting on the street where the neighbor passes our hero in his car, and stops to offer him the job.
This photo shows one of the actors (Salvador Valle, on the far left) with two crew members (Antonio Moreno Jimenez, the sound tech and his sister, Saira Moreno Jimenez, who held the boom for him in the absence of our usual boom person).

And this photo shows two actors -- Salvador Valle again in the far background, plus Antonio de la Malena in the center -- and two crew members (Antonio Moreno Jimenez again, and Maria Duarte, our continuity person).

José Luis Delgado Herrerapiscazo, wife Amparo, and Papeleria Laso

Papeleria Laso is located in Jerez de la Frontera, at the corner of two major avenues, right on the edge of the historic district in the city´s center.  It´s next door to a bank, and right around the corner from many small business and a grammar school.  It is a great location for Papeleria Laso, which is a a paper good/copy shop/ and school and office supply store.

Luis (José Luis Delgado Herrerapiscazo) has been running the shop for 50 years.  His wife, Amparo, helps him out.  They explained to me that they´ve had hard times before but this is definitely the worse.  No one has any money, everyone is just scraping by.  And like Francis, what they sell is not a necessity so people who used to purchase now often go without. 

José Luis Delgado Herrapiscazo and his wife Amparo in their shop.

Luis told me that the businesses that are suffering the most are the small businesses.  He and his wife have no idea how the country and the economy are going to get out of this mess.  They take the government at its word when it says things will get better after another year simply because they don´t know of anything better to do.

I´ll give a short story here to illustrate their situation.  They are motorcycle enthusiasts, each with his/her own motorcycle and they belong to a motorcycle club.  (The wife is very small, and I find it charming to imagine her on a big, muscle motorcycle.)

About five years ago, they had planned to go to the United States and drive their motorcycles across the country, but then the crisis struck, and they weren´t able to go.  Now, they can no longer even afford to leave the city for a vacation, so last year, they stayed open all year and didn´t take any time off.  They expect to do the same this year.

OUR NEXT POST will be about Antonia Balao and her bar/restaurant.

Francis of Francis Peluquero, a beauty shop

Francis owns and operates a small beauty shop in Jerez de la Frontera near the city´s central market.   When I went to interview him, there were several customers but this was at the time of Feria, when “everyone” wants to get their hair done. 

Before the crisis, when a special event was going on, the wait could well be an hour and a half or two hours if you didn´t have an appointment.  On the day I went, however, there was less than a 30 minute wait – the first effect I noticed of the crisis.

Inside Francis Peluquero.  Francis did not want any faces shown.

 Francis has been in business for over 20 years.  He commented to me that things are slower now than they have ever been.  Going to the beauty shop is not a necessity, like food, and that has contributed to the downturn of his business.  People who before would come in twice a week now come in only once a week, and so forth.

It´s been a long time since he was able to go on a trip, or even take a vacation.  He has two young women working for him during busy times, such as during the annual Feria, because his customers don´t like to be kept waiting and if he doesn´t have the two young women, he won´t have any business at all.  When there is no special event going on, he is no longer able to have anyone help him out.

Francis believes it´s going to take a long time for Spain to recover from the crisis.  He does not believe the government´s statement that things will start getting better in another year.  Beyond that, he doesn´t want to speculate about what will happen in the future.

OUR NEXT POST will be about José Luis Delgado Herrapiscazo and his shop.