The Hobo Swan

A “Cal Jefferson” FILM
WRITTEN BY B.Cal Jefferson

‘Toots,’ a homeless thirty-five year old woman, once dreamed of being a dancer and bringing her passion to the storied stages of Auckland City. But her artistic endeavours were side-tracked through misfortune and addiction. She once of dreamed of a day not living in the gutter. But now, even that dream is gone; broken and hopeless, Toots now begs for loose change and scraps. She lives a pathetic existence on the mean inner-city streets of Auckland. A former drug-addled prostitute and porn-star, Toots has hit rock bottom and sees no way out of her horrific life.
Toots’ world becomes even smaller and more grotesque when she is callously attacked during an accidental run-in with a former mayor of Auckland City. He belittles her in front of members of the Business Rectangular Table on the street, making a public spectacle of her horrific situation; which culminates in him slapping Toots to the ground and using his feet to destroy her cardboard shelter.
As Toots lay’s on the rain-soaked footpath, echoes of cruel laughter ring through her head and she looks to the dark skies above. The sky becomes brighter and inspiration from her past, emerging through multiple drug-free hallucinations, appears. She sees her former dance teachers, her former lovers and her family. She relives the good times that she had forgotten and the memories positively charge her spirit. These positive hallucinations are contrasted with much more negative imagery; those of her many abusive pimps, her years lost to the world of hard-core porn and drug-filled orgies with paying strangers.
She realises that there are only two option left open to her; she can either continue on her current path, or rise up and take her life back and earn some self-respect. Can Toots rise-up, leave the past behind and see that the only way forward is her passion; her passion for dance? Can dance lift her and her street brethren from the streets?