Bo­bie-lee Dixon

'Raw, ag­gres­sive and re­al' is how I would de­scribe the movie Miles From Home, which was pre­sent­ed by the DCDB (Don't Cross De Bor­der) Foun­da­tion, head­ed by Edghill Thomas, bet­ter known Max­imus Dan. It pre­miered at Movi­eTowne, In­vaders Bay, Port-of-Spain, last Wednes­day night. The movie is writ­ten, di­rect­ed and pro­duced by new Amer­i­can film-mak­er Ty Hodges and stars Hol­ly­wood ac­tress Mea­gan Good and Eng­lish ac­tor Mar­lon Ol­livierre. Though a low bud­get film, it high­light­ed the re­al­i­ty of what re­al­ly takes place in the lives of street kids. It deals with STDs, teenage pros­ti­tu­tion, drugs, sex and even the fight against per­son­al demons.

Play­ing the role of Miles in the movie, Hodges be­comes a 17-year-old pros­ti­tute on the streets of Los An­ge­les af­ter his moth­er, a lapsed Chris­t­ian on drugs, los­es her home and is un­able to care for her two sons. Hodges is left in the care of his old­er broth­er, who even­tu­al­ly aban­dons him as well. He meets up with the wrong crowd. His shady friends be­come his fam­i­ly and his life be­gins to de­te­ri­o­rate. In the midst of his mad­ness, he is of­ten calmed by the words of wis­dom and the care­free at­ti­tude of Natasha (Megan Good), a girl he meets in a li­brary who even­tu­al­ly helps him to coun­ter­act the work of Di­a­blo, Miles' de­mon, al­so played (very well) by Hodges. Natasha has a se­cret, though, that she is scared to share with him.

Miles even­tu­al­ly leaves the group, but he finds out af­ter tak­ing a test, that due to his life as a pros­ti­tute, he is HIV pos­i­tive. In de­nial at first, Miles breaks down in tears and re­traces the steps in his life that brought him to his present state. Faced with just his thoughts and the re­al­i­ty of be­ing HIV pos­i­tive, he stands up to Di­a­blo and finds peace with­in, de­spite his sit­u­a­tion. The movie ends with a re­al­i­ty check. Ac­cord­ing to Di­a­blo, Sa­tan is al­ways hunt­ing for a lost soul and once he finds it, there is no let­ting go. This movie gets two thumbs up be­cause of it's un­tamed por­tray­al of re­al­i­ty. Young peo­ple who view this film may think twice be­fore cross­ing the bor­der. Great job, Ty.