Always on
This project successfully funded on 22nd October 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
HOME - Feature Documentary for Our Time
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
Globally urgent documentary exploring the impacts of displacement & homelessness via one person's extraordinary journey - Let's make change
THE ASK
We’re aiming to raise £35,000 to help complete post-production on our socially urgent feature documentary.
HOME is a raw character-lead feature documentary exploring displacement, homelessness and belonging through one person’s incredible story. Arriving in the UK as an 18-year-old refugee from the Bosnian war, ALEN built a new life in London with a wife and four children - only to lose it all again due to forces out of his control. In the aftermath of the Grenfell fire in June 2017 – Britain’s deadliest residential blaze of modern times – Alen finds himself homeless, fighting to reclaim a place in the city that once took him in and then quietly erased him.
Following a gruelling eight-year long journey, the film bears witness to the human cost of political negligence, corporate greed, and systemic failure - embodied by Grenfell tower, and echoed across the world. As global displacement reaches unprecedented levels, Alen’s search for home asks us what that word really means, who gets to have one, and what is lost when safety, shelter, and dignity are treated as privileges rather than human rights.
The documentary is being produced by a diverse and multi-award-winning collective of filmmakers. The team is from a wide range of backgrounds, but they share a singular united vision - to do justice to the story we are telling, both artistically and in terms of social impact. This goal will be delivered not only by the end product, but through the journey to get there.
OUR SUPPORTERS & COLLABORATORS
We are working in collaboration with London’s leading homeless charity, Single Homeless Project, who are standing in support of the film and providing guidance to us in terms of duty of care to the participants. The charity's purpose is in preventing homelessness, providing safe places to live, and giving over 10,000 people a year the opportunity to rebuild their lives. In a city where hundreds are forced into homelessness every day, their work has never been more needed or more challenging.
But of course, the problem of displacement is not restricted to one city or one country – it’s a global issue. In recognition, we are also working in collaboration with Homeless Entrepreneurs, an NGO set up to aid people experiencing homelessness reestablish their life. One way they do this is through their innovative HELP Program, a solution that helps people to become self-sufficient by supporting them to develop business ideas, find work, and reintegrate into society.
Also in support of the film is award-winning post-production facility, Clear Cut Pictures. They have generously sponsored the project throughout the 20-month filming process by providing the necessary post-production support in-kind. Their help has enabled us to get to where we are now - and we owe them one, big time!
Stern & Wild documentary talent agency, who represent two of the film's crew - Director, Miles Blayden-Ryall and Executive Producer, Leila Monks - are also endorsing the film. Their stamp of approval lends further credibility to the project, and we thank them for their continued help.
HOW THE MONEY WILL BE DISTRIBUTED
The money raised will help towards paying the post-production costs which include: a five-month editing period, freelancer fees, archive clearance, final post-production processes such as colour grading and sound mixing, legal and compliance fees, mastering the film and so on.
These costs can stretch into the hundreds of thousands, but due to the kindness and generosity of our collaborators, supporters and other partners, we are able to keep these costs comparatively lean.
WHERE TO SEE THE FILM
Our aim is to complete the documentary by August 2026, followed by a premier at a world renowned film festival, and subsequent festival run. Our goal is then an international theatrical release, as well as transmission on a streaming service and/or international terrestrial broadcast channels.
Below is a synopsis of the film, and details of how we hope it will make a meaningful social impact.
Donating to this film is an opportunity to be part of a bold, socially urgent, awards-facing project that's aiming for meaningful political and societal change.
THE FILM
Directed by Grierson Award-winning, double-BAFTA & double-Emmy nominated filmmaker Miles Blayden-Ryall (Silverback, BBC; Life and Death Row: The Mass Execution, BBC; Bad Sport: Need For Weed, Netflix), Home explores universal themes of displacement, homelessness, mental health, conflict, corruption, identity, hope and love.
Alen - a former refugee, then husband, father, and eventually qualified health and safety expert - was made homeless after safety concerns resulted in his North London tower block being evacuated in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster in June 2017. But rather than accept the narrative forced upon him, he chose a path few would dare. To reclaim his life, his family and his home Alen believes he must expose systemic failings that led to his eviction – and quickly Grenfell becomes the key.
Now positioned uniquely outside the system, yet trained to understand its flaws, Alen realises that he can see what others don’t. Gripped by a sudden, unexpected sense of purpose, it's as though his whole life has been leading to this moment. Only someone like him - displaced, overlooked, but no longer bound by institutional blind spots and bureaucracy - can see the whole picture. And he has an almost transcendent obligation to expose this cover up..
Told through extremely rare emotional access and visual intimacy, Home is both a compelling character-led story, and a powerful social reckoning. It’s a journey into the mind of a man whose personal fight for justice becomes a mirror to a post-truth world of deepening corruption and a social dislocation. With its fusion of raw, urgent subject matter and cinematic storytelling, the film is positioned to resonate with audiences worldwide - at a time when widespread geo-political turmoil is raging, and displacement, homelessness, housing insecurity, civic distrust and mental illness are worldwide concerns.
How was it that the residents of Grenfell got ignored until it was too late? Perhaps for the same reason that the homelessness crisis across the world continues to increase. That burned out tower now surrounded in white sheeting, as if to hide the obvious reality beneath, is a symbol of how divorced our world is becoming from itself. In the end this film is about a search for connection - in a continuously disconnected world.
THE ISSUE
Homelessness across the world has reached breaking point. In England alone over 109,000 households, including more than 142,000 children, are currently living in temporary accommodation. In the nation's capital rough sleeping surged by 38% in early 2025 compared to the previous year. But these statistics only scratch the surface. When you include “hidden homelessness” - those sofa surfing or in overcrowded or informal arrangements - leading charities estimate that hundreds of thousands more are affected. And those numbers are from just one country! This is not a problem - it’s a pandemic for which we desperately need to find a cure!
Yet for all its scale, homelessness remains largely unseen. Those who live it exist in the margins - under bridges, in bus shelters, between luxury flats and finance towers - unacknowledged and unheard. The causes are complex: austerity-era cuts to housing and mental health services, unaffordable rents, a shrinking supply of social housing, and a benefits system built on suspicion rather than support. For most, it’s not a dramatic fall but a slow slide - accelerated by trauma, illness, domestic breakdown or job loss. And now, as the UK government prepares to “decriminalise” homelessness in 2026, we reach a cultural inflection point. Is this the beginning of compassion-led reform? One that encourages attention rather than apathy? Or is it the final retreat from responsibility?
Homelessness does not exist in isolation from the wider forces that shape our world. It is part of the same pattern of dispossession we see in Gaza, in Ukraine, and in every place where lives are uprooted by war, violence, or state failure. Places like Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia - where wars even rage largely out of view. Alen himself embodies this connection. He arrived in Britain as a refugee from Bosnia, where the collapse of a multi-ethnic society spiralled into ethnic cleansing and mass displacement. Decades later, in London, he found himself once again without a home - this time not because of bombs or militias, but because of bureaucratic indifference and systemic neglect. The continuum is chilling: whether through missile strikes in Mariupol, air raids in Gaza, or fire safety failures in West London, the result is the same - ordinary people made disposable, stripped of safety, belonging, and dignity.
Home is born in this moment of reckoning. It tells the story of one man - but it speaks to something far larger. Alen, a qualified health and safety expert, wasn’t just evicted - he was erased. And like so many others, his erasure wasn’t incidental - it was systemic. His story reveals how the machinery of power is calibrated to protect the powerful and discard the rest. It’s no coincidence that both homelessness and the Grenfell tragedy stem from the same moral disease: neglect disguised as bureaucracy. But how has this happened to us? Do we no longer care about each other?
At Grenfell, corners were knowingly cut. Cladding that should never have been allowed was waved through to increase profits. Seventy-two people died not just from fire, but from being ignored and from being rendered disposable. Displacement and homelessness follows the same logic. Each life on the street is a warning unheeded. Each 'non-existence' an indictment.
And yet, Home is not a story of defeat. Alen’s journey defies the expected arc of decline. His journey is not only put under pressure by the weight of poverty, but under the burden of knowing too much - of seeing what others refuse to look at. His is a fight not just for housing, but for visibility, dignity, truth and justice.
This is a story rooted in Britain, but relevant everywhere. From London to Los Angeles, from Kigali to Kiev, from Palestine to Port-au-Prince, the question of who gets to belong, to matter, to live - and who gets pushed to the margins, displaced, disappeared, or denied the right to belong - has never been more urgent. Everyone knows what “home” means. And everyone, on some level, knows what it must feel like to lose it.
By the time Home reaches screens, almost a decade will have passed since Grenfell burned. The tower will likely be gone by then - scrubbed from the skyline like a bad memory. But its absence will speak volumes. In this film, it endures - not in brick or steel, but in the grief it left behind, and in the voice of one man who refuses to be erased.
Alen's story is not singular. We walk past hundreds of people just like him every day. But in a post-truth world drowning in disinformation and division, it’s easy to look away. Home urges us to stop, to listen, to question, to understand, to care. To confront the systems that decide who is visible, and to see perhaps for the first time, those they have tried to erase.
THE IMPACT
At a moment when the UK may finally begin to reckon with the structural injustices that have long criminalised poverty - signalled by the long-overdue repeal of a 200-year-old law that made it a crime to sleep rough - Home arrives as a vital cultural intervention.
This feature documentary seeks not only to deepen public understanding of homelessness, but to actively participate in reshaping the national conversation around who becomes homeless, why, and what we owe to one another in a just society. Told through Alen’s intimate and unflinching story, Home reveals the devastating emotional and psychological toll of a life lived on the margins.
More importantly, it shows how systemic failures, not personal shortcomings, are part of the root cause of homelessness, not only in Britain, but across the world. Our intended impact is as follows:
- To promote a cultural shift toward greater empathy and understanding for people experiencing homelessness;
- To support policy change by reframing homelessness not as a criminal issue, but as a housing, health, & social care crisis;
- To influence the responsible allocation of public funds, encouraging long-term investment into prevention and support, rather than enforcement.
- To show that in all the hurry of national and global advancement, we may have started to lose the fundamental core that makes us human - our humanity.
To achieve this, Home will leverage a strategic distribution model to ensure wide visibility across diverse audiences - ideally through theatrical releases, global streaming platforms, public broadcasters and impact screenings at schools, universities and public spaces.
Critical acclaim through major film festivals and awards recognition will lend the project legitimacy and elevate its message into the mainstream. In parallel, we will execute a carefully designed and ethically driven media campaign, working in collaboration with our partners and supporters to amplify the film’s message - and connect it with tangible action.
Ultimately, Home is not just a documentary. It's a call to conscience, a catalyst for change, and a powerful cultural document for a world at a moral crossroads.
AND SO...
In the end we are left with a question - "how long can we go on accepting this reality?"
The gulf between the super-wealthy and the super-poor, between the powerful and the dispossessed, is growing every day.
At its heart, Home is not just about the people left behind - it’s about those who refuse to stop asking… "why?"
Please come on this journey with us to try and get an answer to that question!
Thank you!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made