SHOE SHINE CADDIE

USA 2023 - DCP - 62 minutes, in English

Director, Print Courtesy: Leonard Manzella

Producers: Leonard Manzella, Simo Nylander

With: Adrian Spears

“The homeless” are an abstract group of humans to most. But Shoe Shine Caddie humanizes the unhoused experience by capturing the irresistible spirit of 61-year-old Adrian Spears. After years of incarceration, he’s surviving on the streets of San Luis Obispo, California by shining shoes on a street corner, while fighting for custody of his three-year-old daughter. Adrian is also bursting with vitality and wit, truly his own man. Movie actor (as “Leonard Mann”) turned therapist turned director Leonard Manzella returns to MIFF with this truly lovely portrait of a man looking down at people’s shoes, but also out at the world. —KE