From Our Pages to the Big Screen

Catch the premiere of "404 Not Found" on October 12 at the New Hampshire Film Festival. This documentary film about homeless youth in New Hampshire was inspired by a January 2017 story in New Hampshire Magazine.

Last fall, we asked writer Maggie Wallace and photographer Jasmine Inglesmith to take on a daunting task — to create a feature story for our January 2017 issue on youth homelessness. Maggie and Jasmine handled the story with the utmost care and sensitivity, profiling some of Manchester's young men and women who are, as Maggie wrote, "'at risk,' 'experiencing housing instability,' 'displaced' — in a word, homeless."

The opening of the story goes on to say that "For teenagers, this is a hard word to define. When people picture homelessness, they picture a person living on the street, sleeping underneath blankets on the pavement. But that isn’t the picture of youth homelessness that we see today." What follows are personal stories that shed light on the harsh realities that many homeless youth face, all paired with Jasmine's powerful portraits and photography. We encourage you to read the entire story here. Much of it was made possible with the help of Child and Family Services of New Hampshire.

For Maggie and Jasmine, working on this story wasn't enough.

"Through the support of our community and, in particular, Child and Family Services, it became apparent that this story couldn’t end when the page was turned," Maggie writes in a letter to our editor.

Along with activist and producer Nancy Phillips, Maggie and Jasmine created the new documentary film "404 Not Found," which will premiere at the New Hampshire Film Festival.

"We feel honored and humbled to have had the chance to work on this project and meet these thoughtful, approachable, surprisingly hopeful kids who are growing into adulthood on the streets of Manchester," continues Maggie. "In addition to increasing awareness about the issue of youth homelessness in NH, the three of us are hoping that the video will inspire people to reach out to local organizations and officials, as well as recognize and engage with those young adults in their own community who are living a life 'not found.'"