Radioman (Mary Kerr, 2012): UK

Reviewed by Kimberly Howard.  Viewed at The Metropolitan 4, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, 2013

Documentarian Mary Kerr invades the world of a once homeless citizen of NYC and follows him in his daily routine of seeking out the thing he loves the most….movie sets. This man, beloved and welcomed by all celebrities, is known by the adornment he keeps around his neck, a radio, and has been known ever since as Radioman. Yes, that’s right. He wears the radio around his neck which marks just the first of his many unique qualities which entitle him placement into the eccentric category.

Director Mary Kerr balances the right amount of celebrity homages toward Radioman with an emotionally poking insight to Radioman’s personal life pre-homelessness to present. Celebrity involvements run the whole Hollywood gammot, from the likes of George Clooney, Sharon Stone, Tom Hanks, etc. all the way to comedian Robin Williams and comedienne Whooping Goldberg. (The former he shares an uncanny resemblance to-via looks and personality.) The celebrity interviews share the main theme with nothing negative or judgmental inferred. They all agree that everybody knows and loves Radioman. He was described as a devoted fan of film and they don’t know how he locates the sets, but he is always right on “que.”

The documentary balances the other half of this beloved man’s life by showing accounts of his childhood and the close relationship he had with his mom, and the distant angry absent dad. Radioman overcame homelessness which he described as having no identity. Taken from the documentary, Radioman narrates, “When you’re homeless, you lose your identity….nobody pays attention or notices you, you’re not existent.” Adding to that reputation, he describes his thought pattern of always being in lack which essentially makes you stuck in the belief if you’re constantly having things taken from you, you basically don’t know what a normal, material-possessing existence is. This may explain why in one part of the film, the shots of his room are packed floor to ceiling, overflowing with what outsiders to his world would call “junk.” Undeniably, as expressed in his wordy description of what each is and what they represent, to Radioman, they are what makes him who he is and he is not going to change.

That last comment follows in the movie where he is gifted with an opportunity to go to LA just in time for the Oscars. The same detail is shown of his routine cycling through LA and buying mass amounts of “necessities” and jokingly says how he did it all in one bicycle trip. When he arrives to the Oscars, although the celebrity reception is not as relaxed and welcoming as the NYC scene, there is one saving grace which proves this man is truly unique and cherished. Cher calls out to him and greets him with warmth and respect. How ironic the heroes in this documentary are the very ones we as a general public elevate and place them in a world all their own….just like Radioman.