Documentary film 'Just Getting By' tells Vermonters' stories of food, housing shortages

Families cram into tiny motel rooms. A man camps in the woods night in and night out.

A woman talks of how she lost 12 pounds while living in her car because she wasn’t eating right. An elderly woman mentions that she worked hard all her life but as she grows older she can no longer afford the daily essentials.

Those are some of the stories and images in “Just Getting By,” the new documentary by Northeast Kingdom filmmaker Bess O’Brien. The 90-minute film tells of the two-pronged obstacle facing thousands of Vermonters in a post-pandemic world – food insecurity and a shortage of housing.

“Just Getting By” begins a statewide tour with screenings Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23 in Burlington.

“Really the film is about the working core, working people, people who are just getting by paycheck to paycheck,” according to O’Brien. If a person faces one of those obstacles with food or housing, she said, they almost certainly face the other.

“It just became a movie about both of those things,” O’Brien said.

Films about opiate crisis, food insecurity

O’Brien specializes in documentaries tackling issues facing Vermonters. A decade ago, her film “The Hungry Heart” shaped state discourse on the opiate crisis. O’Brien hopes for similar impact with “Just Getting By,” which explores what she calls “flaws in the system” that keep many Vermonters from being able to afford housing or get enough food.

The idea for the film began with the latter issue. O’Brien had heard that 40% of Vermonters – people who live in a state renowned for agriculture and farm-to-table restaurants – face food insecurity. She spent months researching the issue, reaching out to social services organizations, activists, food shelters and other places where she asked if they knew of people who would want to tell their stories.

“Once you get into that world,” O’Brien said, “you just start meeting more and more people.”

Someone would tell her “You should talk to my uncle” or “You should talk to my neighbor.” Martha’s Community Kitchen in St. Albans invited O’Brien to hang out at the site that offers free meals. The more time she spent there, O’Brien said, the more people felt comfortable talking to her about what they’re going through.

Motel voucher program provides ‘arc’

The COVID-19 pandemic led Vermont to institute temporary motel voucher programs that prevented many Vermonters from being out on the streets after the health crisis threw the economy into a tailspin. O’Brien began making her film as those programs started to erode.

“It was clear that this dynamic was going to be an arc in the film,” according to O’Brien, “and was one of the driving forces in the drama of the film.”

O’Brien will attend all screenings and take part in question-and-answer sessions with audiences. She expects someone from the film – representatives of social services agencies and/or Vermonters who are struggling – will be at each showing.

The filmmaker wants residents of each place she’ll be visiting with “Just Getting By” to talk about issues of housing and food insecurity as a community. People will only build empathy for those who are struggling, O’Brien said, by hearing their stories.

“That’s one of my major goals. For me it’s shining a light on an often invisible group of people who live right near us” and might be serving us meals in restaurants or passing us on the street,” according to O’Brien. “This film, I hope, brings us closer to those stories.”

If you go

WHAT: “Just Getting By,” a documentary by Vermont filmmaker Bess O’Brien

WHEN and WHERE: 7 p.m. Friday, March 22-Saturday, March 23, Main Street Landing Arts Center, Burlington.

Also, 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 26, The Welden Theater, St. Albans; Thursday, March 28-Friday, March 29, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum; Saturday, March 30, Town Hall Theater, Middlebury; Sunday, March 31, Latchis Theatre, Brattleboro; Thursday, April 4, Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro; Friday, April 5, Morristown Centennial Library; Saturday, April 6, Rutland Free Library; and Friday, April 12, The Savoy Theater, Montpelier.

INFORMATION: $15 except for free screenings in St. Johnsbury and Morristown. www.kingdomcounty.org

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.