Join Meaningful Movies PDX for an in-person screening of Helpers, an award-winning documentary that follows Portland’s community response to crisis through the lens of the 13 Salmon Shower Project at First Unitarian Church, a volunteer driven program filmmaker Kelly Clendenon co-founded in 2024 that provides free showers, clothing, food, and a sense of community to their unhoused neighbors in downtown Portland.

About the Speaker: Filmmaker Kelly Clendenon is the founder and president of Common Lens Films, a Portland based nonprofit documentary production company dedicated to social justice storytelling. After battling heroin addiction for 15 years and spending three years on Portland’s streets between 2012-2015, Kelly found lasting recovery following a near-fatal fentanyl overdose in 2015. He returned to college and graduated summa cum laude from Portland State University with a degree in History in 2023, and then earned his Master’s in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Oregon in 2025. Now over a decade into recovery, Kelly serves on Multnomah County’s Homelessness Response Action Plan Advisory Committee and uses documentary filmmaking to give back to his downtown community. In December 2025, Helpers screened for Portland’s HRAP policymakers, including mayor Keith Wilson.

Parking in the church garage off SW 12th Ave is free for those attending the event.