Reservation for Two

I made this film because I never know how to act when I’m around homeless people. I feel awkward, privileged, and materialistic. I feel like I can’t be happy when I walk by.
I also notice how many different people react in homeless interactions. Some choose to ignore, some get paranoid and untrusting, some become shameful, others become gracious, either humbly, or self-righteously.
I also have been to New Orleans on vacation 5 or 6 times, and every time I go I encounter homeless persons. Some look sad, some joke, some look eager, some look earnest. Some ask for change, others are just there. You can smell the alcohol on some, but others you wonder if they have a mental disorder.
To me, that seems to be why people never seem to know what to do around the homeless. Number one, they’re self-conscious of their lifestyle. Number two, you never know a homeless person's story. You can assume that they’ve had many chances to improve their life, but continue to wreck their chances with drugs and alcohol. Sometimes this may be the case, but the scary thing is that you could be wrong. They might have a mental disorder. They might not be able to keep a job because they don’t have a home to sleep in and groom themselves for a work environment, and they can’t get a home because they don’t have a job. Their spouse or only family member could have died from cancer, and the grief and medical bills led them into homelessness.

The flipside of the coin comes through the character Elaine. She’s tidy, which in itself isn’t a bad thing. However, when you're so caught up in organization and cleanliness that it affects your relationships with family, friends, and strangers, it’s a problem.
How do I know this? My mother hasn’t been diagnosed with any condition or illness, but she is very anal-retentive, characterized by orderliness, stubbornness, and compulsions for control, and might have obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), not to be confused with Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
OCPD is characterized by concern for orderliness, perfectionism, excessive concern for details, mental and interpersonal control, and control over environment at the expense of flexibility and new experiences. Rituals are performed to the point of excluding leisure activities and friendships, and they find it hard to relax, always feeling like time is running out.
With OCD, people feel the need to check things repeatedly, perform certain routines repeatedly (rituals, like hand-washing), or have certain thoughts repeatedly.
When I stay with my mom, she has to come in and tidy up my room at some point during the day. During Christmas brunch, she would come around and make sure that not only do you have a coaster, but you have a paper towel on top of the coaster. She obsesses over minor details at work and at home, making sure things are done and arranged perfectly. She spends so much time cleaning and arranging her very small home that only she lives in, that she doesn’t do much of anything other than work and church.
How do I know this is an actual problem? Because now I catch myself repeatedly checking and rechecking things that I know I’ve already checked: my car and door locks, my backpack pockets, and my items in my jacket. I also have to keep things symmetrical, and have anxiety when things aren’t in their place or arranged correctly. I can feel myself wasting my day and constantly losing time, but sometimes I just can’t stop myself, especially when I’m stressed. I procrastinate my homework because I know how much time it takes me, because I expect perfection and pay too much attention to minor details.
More so nature (genes from my mom) or nurture (learned behavior from being around her over the years), who's to say? But the point is, I wanted to see the interaction between these two characters of very different lifestyles, to find out if they really are all that different underneath, as human beings.