BEST SHORT FILM - Sacramento International Film Festival | BEST HUMAN RIGHTS SHORT - Film Festival at Hollywood Park | WORLD PREMIERE and OFFICIAL SELECTION - Big Sky Documentary Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Palm Springs International Short Film Festival | OFFICIAL SELECTION - Indy Shorts International Film Festival
Housing Insecurity • Poverty • Human Rights • Social Service and Mental Health Service Needs in Communities • Policy Issues around Building Affordable Housing and Addressing Homelessness
Date of Completion: 2025 | Run Time: 28 minutes | Language: English with English subtitles | Captions: Yes | Audio Description: Available Upon Request | Includes: Transcript & Discussion Guide | Director: Lisa Klein | Producers: Leslie Silver & Doug Blush | Managing Editor: Doug Blush | Editor: Josh Bayer | Director of Photography: Lou Douros | Music Composition: Jordan Halpern Schwartz
In Sacramento, a formerly unhoused man named Mark now spends his days helping others navigate the same system he once struggled to survive. Riding alongside him, we meet neighbors living in minivans, battling addiction, or falling through the cracks of well-intentioned policies. With disarming honesty and fierce compassion, Mark meets people where they are, offering help, not judgment.
OUT HERE traces one man’s redemptive path while revealing the larger failures and quiet victories shaping life on the streets in the wealthiest state in the nation. The film suggests that taking a good, honest and human look at homelessness allows us to better understand the problem, and that doing so may be a necessary part of solving this complex problem.
AWARDS
Best Short Film | Sacramento International Film Festival
Best Human Rights Short | Film Festival at Hollywood Park
Official Selection | Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (World Premiere)
Official Selection | Indy Shorts International Film Festival
Official Selection | Newport Beach Film Festival
Official Selection | Palm Springs International Short Film Festival
Official Selection | Port Townsend Film Festival
Official Selection | Tucson Film Festival
SCREENINGS
City of Davis, CA hosted by Yolo County Supervisor Sheila Allen
Sacramento State Renaissance Society
UC Davis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Director of OUT HERE, THE S WORD and OF TWO MINDS
Lisa Klein is an award-winning director and writer dedicated to crafting engaging documentary films on social justice issues. Her current projects include the documentary OUT HERE and an untitled project on child advocacy and early childhood development. She is the director of THE S WORD (2017) which explores suicide through the emotional stories of attempt and loss survivors, and co-director of OF TWO MINDS (2012), a journey into the lives of remarkable people living, struggling and triumphing with bipolar disorder. Both documentaries received the prestigious SAMHSA Voice Award, the most significant award for mental health filmmaking. Her latest project, WAIT! Is animated short documentary.
In addition, she is a published author, and speaks at universities and organizations around the world, raising awareness about mental health issues. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California.
Expertise
As documentary filmmaker and public speaker, I like to lead candid, down-to-earth conversations on homelessness and mental health. Through post-screening discussions, I can connect with audiences in an honest and accessible way, offering insight into both the filmmaking process and the real-world issues behind my work. My speaking style is thoughtful and engaging.
Speaking History
The Mayo Clinic, The Brookings Institute, Harvard University, University of Michigan.
Producer of OUT HERE
Leslie Silver is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley and received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Alliant University in San Francisco.Leslie began working with the unhoused more than thirty years ago as a social worker in New York City and San Francisco. Leslie witnessed the struggles of people experiencing homelessness – and the grossly insufficient services to help them—from a unique vantage point. The homelessness crisis has grown exponentially in the last 30 years, and Leslie believes that the key to solving this crisis lies in understanding the individual stories of the people experiencing it. For Leslie, OUT HERE is an homage to all the social service workers she has met and worked alongside over the years. She hopes that OUT HERE humanizes the homelessness issue and will inspire productive conversations about how to address this complex problem.
In addition to producing OUT HERE, Leslie runs a private practice outpatient clinic in Davis, California. She also teaches clinical theory and technique and supervises mental health clinicians in training.
Expertise
The inspiration for OUT HERE came from Leslie’s experiences working with the unhoused as a social worker in the 1980’s. The film was the product of Leslie’s vision and she self-funded much of the project. It was through Leslie’s contacts in the social service world in Sacramento that the film team was able to get such intimate access to the subjects. Leslie can speak to what it is really like inside a homeless encampment and how to gain trust with this vulnerable population. She has a clear sense of what is broken in the systems of care servicing the homeless, and which strategies can be implemented to improve the situation.
Speaking History
A city of Davis event hosted by the Yolo County Supervisor, Sacramento State University Renaissance Society and the University of California at Davis adult continuing education class (OLLI).