City College News

"Will Work for Food" is a feature-length documentary by MCTC video alumnus Tom Maertz that will be showing May 9 at 7 p.m. at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis.

The film, which is about sign flyers in the Twin Cities, is a series of interviews and glimpses into the lives of the sign flyers.

Sign flyers are generally homeless and desperate people who hold cardboard signs soliciting for help of some kind. An example of a sign flyer would be someone cardboard sign reading "Homeless, anything helps. God Bless."

Although Maertz had been dreaming of making a film like this for a while, it sort of began in earnest without a definite plan. "We didn't start out making it, it made itself," Maertz said.

He had graduated from MCTC in 2004 with an associate degree in Video Production, and had dreams of making this film about sign flyers.

While working at Midway Training Services he met James Sobanski, a video and music producer who would become his partner in making the film.

They spoke often about the idea and as Maertz passed sign flyers near his Oakdale, Minn. home; he was at a loss as to how to respond to them. He thought that rather than give them money, he would like to learn about them.

At one point they had entertained the idea of sleeping outside and flying signs themselves to see what it would be like. He dismissed the idea because, as Maertz puts it, they were there to "tell a story - not do reality TV. We don't need to manufacture it, it's already there."

Once he had planned as much as he felt he could he realized that "the first thing is I gotta have some guts, dealing with people who could potentially be hostile."

One day he and Sobanski had their camera, and decided they had the guts to begin. They stopped near the Maplewood, Minn. mall, where they often saw sign flyers. The first person they interviewed was Scotty. It was a very impromptu affair, but the ball was rolling.

Over the next few months they shot footage together, until Sobanski had to attend to other business and Maertz was left doing most of the filming and editing.

From 2007 to early 2009 Tom was out talking with sign flyers. One difficulty he says was that it often felt that "every interview was happening for the first time. Some people didn't want to reveal very much."

Maertz told said that in his interviews he learned that one ought not "make them (sign flyers) feel like you're spying on them. Look them in the eye, don't beat around the bush, and don't be afraid."

"The more I did it. The easier it became." I asked Maertz if he felt that the sign flyers he spoke with were dangerous. "The majority are not." He said, "Nobody in the homeless camp is in any condition to do anything to anybody."

Maertz says most of the sign flyers are not happy in their condition, and that it was difficult to be sure about their sincerity. He told me a few times during the interview that oftentimes he felt people were being evasive about personal information, among other things.

Often he says that when they do open up to him, there is a history of abuse. And there were a few; Fritz and Cherokee in particular who he felt were very candid with him.

There are cliques of flyers and they work in shifts, one source told him that he makes about 23 dollars in an eight-hour day. The money used to be better in the early 90s. One person told of getting an 800-dollar hit, but there is no way of verifying the story.

I asked Maertz if he thought that giving money to sign flyers made a difference to them, he told me that "it does nothing for them long-term, but people have to eat." "Remember that not all of them are druggies."

Maertz says that helping a sign flyer can be easy.

"Pick someone up, take them to lunch and wish them well. Donate to a shelter or volunteer." His next project will likely be "Will Work for Food 2."

"I only scratched the surface." Maertz said, "I've learned so much, there's so much more I could do."

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