It Was a Wonderful Life
The 1992 documentaryIt Was a Wonderful Lifewon several awards for  its depiction of homeless women--the "hidden homeless" who don't sit on  the streets and beg for change, but who live in motels and cars, often  with children, while they desperately try to set their lives right.  Several of the movie's subjects were left helpless from a bad divorce; one  woman, a former singer, was abandoned by her affluent husband while  pregnant with his sixth child. He now avoids paying child support,  trusting in an over-loaded bureaucracy with limited power to enforce the  law.It Was a Wonderful Lifeisn't the most artfully made  documentary, but after listening to the revealing stories of these  women--all struggling but determined to survive--you'll find yourself  sizing up your own life, wondering if a brief illness or a lost job could  steal your own life away. Narrated by Jodie Foster with music by Melissa Etheridge.--Bret Fetzer