Netflix Releases Trailer for Heartbreaking Doc Short “Lead Me Home”

Homelessness is a problem none of us want to think about, but it's ever-present and growing, thanks to inaction by government at every level. But it's still something we don't want to look at and hope we never experience.

Los Angeles County has one of the nation's highest populations of homeless people, with nearly 70,000 living on the streets, exacerbated by the pandemic. The new Netflix documentary short Lead Me Home takes a look at the crisis, interviewing the people devastated by a lack of housing, the extreme police response and the NIMBY homeowners who don't want to give their fellow humans a place to live (or at least not one near them).

The film seems like a lock for the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, or at least a nominee.

Lead Me Home premieres exclusively on Netflix on Tuesday, November 30.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.