Gallery Index
Lothar Patten
Like John, Lothar Patten's biography is deeply rooted in the streets. Known simply as "the nice man" in his hometown of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he became an important advocate for the homeless during the 2004 Presidential Elections.
Documented here by sociologist James Tucker on digital videotape, Lothar's is the first of five stories included in One Story High, where we actually get to hear the subject speak -- a common rhetorical strategy in disciplinary sociology, but one, which takes on an added poignancy here, when we learn that Lothar died a few short years after these sunny frames were shot.
We hear Tucker's voice too, off camera, asking questions, offering us a rare glimpse as to how sociological stories like these are often made, through the simple act of one person taking interest in another, then the two of them just spending time together -- talking.
James Tucker is a professor at the University of New Hampshire. His full length feature documentary about Lothar Patten, The Nice Man Cometh, won a "Best Documentary" award at Cheap Shot LA, a film festival for low and no budget films.Tucker also writes and teaches about the sociology of law and social deviance.