Several years ago, director Leslie Dektor walked away from his advertising career, one which yielded assorted honors including 13 DGA Award nominations as best commercial director of the year. He won that DGA Award twice, in 1992 and 2000.

Dektor said he “adored” directing spots but it was his experience in the ad discipline that naturally led him to shift his filmmaking focus to the world of documentaries. “I tended to make advertising film that dealt with people, capturing moments, ‘the sweet nothings that turn out to be the big everything.’”

Those sweet moments are showcased in such iconic observational work as the Levi’s 501 Blues campaign. “I never made big-idea advertising. I did but I didn’t. My work concentrated on a reflection of the human condition. And now my documentary work is an extension of that.” Lesser known spot fare directed by Dektor also shed light on humanity, even at times the plights we face--a prime example being “Rent or Food,” an Ad Council PSA for America’s Second harvest which depicts a woman who is unable to pay the rent on her house because she’s supporting three children.

Dektor has helmed a string of feature-length documentaries in recent years, including one chronicling the life of a midwife, and another centering on a dog trainer who doesn’t train dogs but rather people to live with their dogs. This trainer, explained Dektor, is a don’t-do-as-I-do-but-do-what-I-say kind of teacher as we find that some of the human qualities he tries to promote are lacking in him. Providing insights into human behavior and foibles, this latter documentary will soon be available on the Amazon platform.

Dektor’s latest “social documentary,” as he describes it, is Passing Through which introduces us to a community of artists in and around Los Angeles’ Skid Row neighborhood. For decades, the destitute, marginalized, mentally ill and addicted have been herded and confined to Skid Row. It’s a neighborhood many avoid or drive through without stopping. Dektor’s documentary shows us that there’s something worthwhile in this community which is home to the homeless. The entry point for the film is the LAMP Community, an art studio founded by painter Rory White as a place where the homeless and disenfranchised can discover their creative voice, It’s a place where the dispossessed can find a sense of belonging. 

Passing Through delves into not only what these fledgling artists have learned and gained from White but how he has benefited from having them in his life. Gravitas Ventures is releasing Passing Through across various platforms this month. Proceeds from the film will be donated to White’s Art Continuum, a program which continues the work he began at the LAMP Community, and other organizations that serve the homeless population and support the arts in Los Angeles. For more on Passing Through, click here.

Also on the fundraising front, a book of Dektor’s photographs will soon be published as a companion piece to Passing Through. Dektor plans to launch an exhibit, ideally in the Skid Row area, where Passing Through will be screened, the book is made available and the art of Skid Row artists will be on display for purchase. Just as his film shows people’s lives connecting with one another on Skid Row, Dektor hopes to connect outsiders to this community of artists through this exhibit--and in the process drum up revenue for this downtown L.A. community.

To make Passing Through, which was produced by his Dektor Film Group, Dektor put on the backburner a narrative feature on revered photojournalist Dorothea Lange that he is set to direct. David Fincher is executive producing the Lange film.

In researching Lange’s life, Dektor found she was so consumed with her work that she didn’t take time to tend to her personal life and other passions. This in turn prompted Dektor to, unlike Lange, “pause” for a moment to consider what he needed to do. That pause took him to Skid Row, an area he long felt was misunderstood, never seen for its beauty, culture, grace and human spirit in the face of adversity. So ironically Lange served as a catalyst for him to take a break from the film about her to pursue Passing Through, his own passion project. 

Inspiration for Passing Through also came from Lange’s signature work on the struggle of the Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression. Dektor saw a parallel between the subjects of Lange’s photos and the outcast and impoverished in Los Angeles today. Like Lange’s photography, the works created by Skid Row residents in the LAMP Community underscore the power of art to illuminate and bring hope to the darkest corners of life.