Vadim Perelman, director of "House of Sand and Fog", once was homeless and destitute:

[link|http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/movies/05VADI.html|http://www.nytimes.c...ovies/05VADI.html]

He recalled a time in his early teens when he and his mother, poor and desperate in Canada, were walking in the bitter cold together at Christmas time. His mother looked into the windows of houses, where she could see families celebrating and laughing, and she began to cry.

"And I said, `Mom, one day there will be a holiday on our street, too,' " Mr. Perelman recalled, his eyes filling with tears. "She reminds me of that a lot these days."