Oscar-nominated short film 'Lead Me Home' spotlights LA's homeless crisis

HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES -- The homeless problem in L.A. is part of the Oscar-nominated documentary short, "Lead Me Home." The filmmakers behind the movie consider the amount of Americans experiencing homelessness as an epidemic.

They wanted to make a beautiful movie about an ugly topic.

"This is a film about humanity and about people and they are beautiful. This film is meant to be a reminder to Americans that there are 500,000 human being sleeping on the streets without a home every night in our country," said co-director Jon Shenk.

"And so we want to shed that cloak of invisibility and celebrate the humanity that is out in the streets and also kind of call to the humanitarian crisis that is in our streets today," said co-director Pedro Kos. "We've been working on this film for years. And we've been, you know, we've developed, friendships and relationships with incredible people."

"What you see in the film is a couple of dozen people who are experiencing homelessness and they come from all walks of life," said Shenk. "We hope the film can play a small role in opening up people's hearts and reminding the audience that these are people. They're fellow human beings. They're our neighbors."

"Lead Me Home" is available now on Netflix.