Stacey Maltin Shines in Landing Up! - A Portrait of Homeless Youth

Once upon a time, I was introduced to a young man who was viewed as a potential boyfriend for me from a co-worker in New York City. After a few dates, I became curious that I hadn’t met any of his friends, family or even crossed a threshold of where he lived. He seemed to never had any money when we would go out and my Mom used to refer to him at the “Ghetto Casanova.” Needless to say, the union didn’t last long after that. Have you ever dated someone who is a complete mystery to you? Or better yet, someone who has misrepresented who they initially said they were? Oh yeah, this guy said that he sold seminar space and traveled for a living. The reality was he did neither and it actually escapes my memory what his real occupation was.

This scenario is very similar to the wool that homeless youth Chrissie pulls over her boyfriend David’s eyes when he begins to wonder why he’s never been to her apartment. Landing Up! pulls the band off the sore of homelessness among America’s youth showing the grimiest, realistic views that can often lead to dangerous, degrading and compromising situations for young homeless women. At the end of the day, not everyone is who or what you think.

Stacy Maltin is the screenwriter and is wonderful coy yet cunning as Chrissie. Her best friend CeCe is beautifully portrayed by the late E’dena Hines (Morgan Freeman’s great-granddaughter). As the over-optimistic boyfriend David, ABC-TV’s resident hearthrob at For The People – Ben Rappaport is charmingly handsome and takes you back to Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

Director, Dani Tenenbaum has managed to make the audience loath and feel sorry for these two young women who play con games with strangers to put a roof over their heads while fantasizing about their dream apartment.

I recently sat down with Stacey, Dani and Ben to discuss the film and here are some excerpts from that interview…

INTERVIEW WITH STACEY MALTIN, DANI TENENBAUM AND BEN RAPPAPORT from LANDING UP!

E’dena Hines was missing from this interview as she tragically lost her life. To honor her memory, the filmmakers felt it was paramount to give their audience a call to action. For the World Premiere, they raised awareness by partnering with the non-profit organizations Midnight Mission, which offers paths to self-sufficiency to men, women and children who have lost direction, and LA Family Housing, which helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty. 550,000 unaccompanied, single youth and young adults under the age of 24 experience a homelessness episode of longer than one week. Approximately 380,000 of that total are under the age of 18. Accurately counting homeless children and youth is particularly difficult and the filmmakers of Landing Up! are hoping this film sheds some light on an undercover epidemic.

Landing Up! is available for pre-order on iTunes now for $9.99 and downloadable starting May 15th. It also be available on other digital platforms (including Amazon and Google Play), on DVD, video-on-demand and cable. Here are the links below to purchase…