Tent City documentary premieres today

• "A Place of their Own" — student documentary on Tent City premieres 6 p.m. July 29 in Bey Hall.
• Students discuss alternate homeless policies, such as Bergen County's one-stop shelter.
• Students first showed the film at Lakewood Library on Saturday
• The film came from "Applications of Social Justice and Human Rights" taught by Barbara Arrington.

WEST LONG BRANCH – A student documentary chronicling life at Tent City, the one-time homeless encampment in Lakewood, premieres today.

"A Place of Their Own," a 29-minute film, debuts at 6 p.m. in Bey Hall's Young auditorium on campus. The documentary showcases life at Tent City, which the students said a unique community with support services and people who cared for one another.

"I think they are just like us," said social work graduate student Margaret Reynolds of Toms River. "People in the camp were very social. We all could relate to one another on so many issues."

Lakewood's Tent City "is over"

More than 100 people were living at Tent City, the encampment on township-owned land off Cedar Bridge Avenue and South Clover Street, before it was closed down in June. Officials said the homeless of Tent City would be placed in housing scattered throughout the county for a year.

The students, who visited the encampment over five months, noted Ocean County has two animal shelters but none for humans.

"Just the fact that they were open to us coming made us want to help," said Cheryl Kaplan of Monroe, who along with Reynolds served as producers of the documentary.

"They were willing to tell us their story," Kaplan said of Tent City residents.

But Tent City also was a symbol of hope as other homeless people heard about it and joined the encampment, which was equipped with heaters and a shower facility and often had food, courtesy of volunteers, according to the film.

"We learned that values were being taught," said Kaplan, the same as in other functional communities.

The screening, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the other amateur film makers who include Monmouth University Master of Social Work students Candida Wiltshire of Teaneck, who was the executive producer, and Reynolds, Kaplan and Aliyah Williams of Orange, film producers. The film was directed and edited by LeMar Charles, a friend of some of the students.

Their plan is to enter it in film festivals and produce a DVD, which some members hope can be sold and profits directed into charities that would benefit the film's subjects.

Visit www.facebook.com/APlaceofTheirOwnDocumentary for more information. Tweet to A Place of Their Own.

Carol Gorga Williams: 732-643-4212; cgorgawilliams@app.com