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University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Craig Walton stands on Maryland Parkway next to posters advertising a video in which homeless men fight each other and perform risky stunts. Walton says the video, put together by two Southern California film school graduates, is cruel. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Men battle in this image taken from a fast-selling video taken by Las Vegas filmmakers Ray Laticia and Ty Beeson.

Sunday, May 05, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Film cashes in on street scenes

Video selling fast, but advocates for homeless critical

It's a brutal video depiction of street life, portrayed through rapid-cut, hand-held camera images.

With the Stratosphere looming in the background, a vagrant struggles to escape the punishing punches, kicks and body slams of his attacker. In a flash, the scene changes. Another man standing in a dark alley smacks himself in the head as he realizes his hair is on fire.

The fast-selling video featuring grisly footage of homeless men fighting on the streets of Las Vegas and performing other stunts has angered some advocates for the homeless and alerted authorities to potential crimes by the filmmakers and their subjects.

Las Vegas filmmakers Ray Laticia and Ty Beeson say that in only three weeks they've sold nearly 10,000 copies of their video, "Bumfights: Cause for Concern, Volume 1," some to viewers as far away as Europe. The recent graduates of the film schools of the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California have marketed the work they describe as a "hilariously shocking" look at "drunk bums fighting" and "bum stunts," using only the Internet and posters around Las Vegas.

"Society has a fascination with homeless people, people living on the streets, almost a perverse fascination," Laticia said. "People don't get a chance to see much of that. We thought it would be exciting to get a glimpse of that kind of life."

The action includes one scene in which a man sustains a broken ankle in a fight. In another, a purported crack addict smokes the drug and defecates on a sidewalk. There is a homeless man extracting his own tooth with a pair of pliers, and another man tattooing the title of the film on his forehead.

Another homeless man, referred to as Rufus the Stunt Bum, performs a series of feats for the camera, including repeatedly ramming his head into a wall and a fast food drive-through menu, riding a shopping cart and a skateboard down a steep incline and spray painting the bedding of other homeless men.

In several scenes producers appear to instigate the action. A segment titled "The Bumhunter" parodies television's "The Crocodile Hunter," with a man in safari clothing binding, gagging, measuring and marking various homeless men on the streets of Las Vegas before "releasing them into their natural habitat."

The 23-year-old filmmakers, who got their idea after witnessing violent altercations among men living on the street, said all of the homeless men appearing in the video did so by their own choice and agreed to the use of their images by signing consent forms. Some of them were compensated for their acts.

"We have a few bums that we've been working with for a while, and they are willing to partake in different nefarious activities for the camera," Laticia said. "And when they do, we either provide them with cash or food or clothing. We don't force anyone."

But Craig Walton, a professor of ethics and policy studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said even if the homeless aren't forced to perform, it's inaccurate to describe people without adequate shelter, food or clothing as having choices.

"It's sickening to try and cloak it in the garments of free choice," he said. "What are their choices?

"Is that what we're saying, we've come up with a class of people who can either enter into violence for money or drop dead? Is that it? Even the gladiators had better status in the Roman Empire. They ate regularly and were kept in good condition."

Advocates for the homeless say the film shows the most vulnerable members of society being exploited for the purpose of entertainment.

"Let's just say the First Amendment protects all kind of things, even something as sordid as this," said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. "It's a fairly sad state of affairs when someone is exploiting people who are broke and desperate for money to engage in fights for other people's amusements."

Linda Lera-Randle El, an outreach worker for the homeless who is making a documentary on their lifestyle, said the "Bumfights" film has little artistic merit or social value.

"For them (the filmmakers) to make entertainment of an issue we spend our blood, sweat and tears trying to resolve is insulting," she said. "This is a serious issue. There's nothing entertaining about watching homeless people fight."

Las Vegas police Sgt. Eric Fricker, a member of the department's HELP Team, said some of the images on the video appear to depict illegal behavior. The HELP Team specializes in working with the city's homeless population. Fricker said scenes from the "Bumhunter" segment, for example, are troubling.

"They are abusing the homeless folk, and that's pathetic," Fricker said. "If they (the filmmakers) are binding the hands of the homeless, preventing them from moving or attacking them in any way, that could be kidnapping, assault and battery."

Fricker also noted that police have received complaints about Rufus the Stunt Bum.

"This has become a way of life for him," Fricker said. "He sounds like a real clown, knocking a newspaper rack into the street with his head. Rufus needs help."

Laticia said the fights usually end "on their own." But the filmmakers would step in if a fight became life-threatening, he said.

Some area homeless people say fighting for money is rare, but they acknowledge that violence is part of life on the streets.

"I think it's stupid," said Carl Steiner, a 25-year-old man who has been living on Las Vegas streets for six months. "Someone who does that is just engaging in the stereotype of the homeless."

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said his office would consider prosecuting the filmmakers or anyone who participated in the making of the video only if someone filed a complaint with police.

"The filming of a fight between two people and distributing that film is not against the law," he said. "If there is a crime report, we would prosecute as we would in any other case. The film itself might be akin to a surveillance tape and could be used as evidence if a crime is reported."

The trend toward real-life footage on television and in films is just an extension of the public's attraction to conflict and violence, said Richard Walter, a professor at the School of Theater, Film and Television at the University of California, Los Angeles. Walter characterized "Bumfights" as a "cousin of police chases caught on tape and `America's Funniest Home Videos.' "

"By observing violence in a situation that doesn't involve us directly, by experiencing those emotions vicariously, we're better prepared to deal with it in our lives," Walter said. "At worst (`Bumfights') is bad art. When you see ugly expression that you hate, like Jerry Springer, you should rejoice. It's testimony we live in a free society."

But the popularity of such forms of expression might reveal more disturbing aspects of society and its perceptions of the homeless, Lichtenstein said.

"Here you have a population of homeless who are pretty desperate, living on the street in a hand-to-mouth existence, and some very warped individuals find that entertaining," he said. "It indicates how we all need to deal with the homeless as humans, not as trash or people that can be used for our amusement."

Ruth Bruland, executive director of MASH Village, the area's main provider of services to the homeless, said the video represents the antithesis of her organization's work.

"We try to restore their dignity and re-create the link between cause and effect in their lives," she said. "We try to give them control of their own destinies again. This film totally destroys that. It creates pain, deterioration and exploitation that's so extreme."

Laticia brushes off such criticism, calling people who are offended by his work pretentious.

"I'm sure they have good intentions, but it comes down to actions over rhetoric," he said, adding that a small percentage of proceeds from the video will be donated to an advocacy group for the homeless.

"To people who are going to take offense, I'd say, 'What have they done for the homeless?' "

Laticia and Beeson, inspired by their success, have begun work on a sequel. They plan to use the money earned from the two videos to fund a career in more conventional filmmaking.

"This project is a means to an end," Leticia said. "We want to be feature filmmakers. We're going to cash in and then cash out and go make some movies."