Educational Media Reviews Online

Shani Heckman produced America’s Most Unwanted as her thesis film at San Francisco State University, and she very effectively introduces her audience to the experiences of GLBT foster youth in California.

The strongest feature of this film is that four young adults speak for themselves, and speak very frankly about the fear and abuse they endured in foster care or group homes. They also openly appreciate the support they received, once in a while from an adult but most often from fellow foster children. Viewers may find it especially interesting that Ms. Heckman begins her film with each subject telling his or her story but they don’t immediately identify their difficulties as arising from homophobia. With this simple inversion of perspective, it’s easier for viewers to understand how hard it is to be a foster, let alone a foster that is treated with suspicion and lack of respect by adults and others around them simply because of their sexuality or gender expression.

The filmmaker also judiciously uses adult perspectives and statistics to solidify her thesis. Unfortunately, many incidents described in the interviews aren’t fleshed out, so viewers may wish they understood circumstances more fully, but this is mitigated by additional biographical information during the credits and on accompanying material.

Overall, America’s Most Unwanted is a very good introduction to a topic seldom explored in film, and benefits from high production values despite the constraints of a student film budget. This would be a valuable addition to academic collections supporting GLBT studies programs and would also be useful in courses on social work, parenting and the family, and children’s rights.