A project that's been in the works for a long time in Austin is finally ready to be seen by the public. Home Free, a feature-length comedy by a local filmmaking duo, is finally home now through November 8, 2024. It'll screen every Friday at the recently resurrected Eastside Cinema, followed by Q&A's with the cast and crew.

Open-minded Austinites may have wished they could help someone out by providing a temporary roof over their head, but filmmakers Aaron Brown and Lenny Barszap actually tried it in college at the University of Texas. They extended an offer to an unhoused philosophy professor, who inadvertently served as the basis for the catalyzing character in the film, played by Joe Hart.

After 25 years, the filmmakers' fictional stand-ins turn the real-life experience into a coming-of-age film, with the same chaotic tone of many iconic college films ("Dazed & Confused meets Superbad," a release says), but a deeper message about how Austinites might help the people around them. Brown and Barszap call it a "Trojan horse": a way to get the message out there that is still fun to watch.

“Our movie is unapologetically funny, but it’s also intended to be a catalyst for serious social change sharply focused on one of the most pervasive problems across America – the unhousing epidemic,” said co creators of the film, writer Barszap and director Brown, both producers, in the release. “We want the message to reach the audience that would never watch a sad drama or documentary about homelessness, but would surely want to laugh. Humor is our spoonful of sugar.”

This series of screenings is a sneak peek before the rest of the United States gets to see it in 2025, and it looks like demand is already high.

The film's world premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood sold out in July, 2023. Kevin Smith, the actor who played the iconic character Silent Bob and directed films like Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, selected it for his Smodcastle Film Festival in New Jersey; it sold out for closing night at the Dances With Films NY Festival; and it's also played in Austin at the Austin Film Festival to capacity screenings. All that said, this series will provide the first public (i.e. not at a festival) screening.

Since taking strangers in isn't exactly an efficient or perfectly safe idea, filmmakers are channeling support to The Other Ones Foundation (TOOF), a highly regarded local nonprofit for transitional housing. TOOF offers meals and work (having paid out nearly $1 million so far), helps clean up trash around Austin, and manages a shelter complex that it built at the Esperanza Community on state-owned land.

The Home Free team sees TOOF as a model the rest of the U.S. could use to build out more effective programs. They've even founded their own nonprofit Been There, an arts organization that "uses Trojan-horse style art as a catalyst for positive social change," in its own words. It organizes a music and arts festival that supports TOOF; the next one is November 2.

Lots of big and local names show up on Home Free's soundtrack, including members of Beastie Boys, Dinosaur Jr., Pharcyde, Jurassic 5, Ghostland Observatory, Sabrina Ellis, White Denim, Stephanie Hunt. Local super-producer Adrian Quesada, who also attended UT in the 90's, produced this soundtrack.

Tickets ($13, with an option to add popcorn and candy for an addition $9) are available at beenthere.org. A portion of the film's proceeds will support TOOF. Eastside Cinema is located at 1156 Hargrave St.