Street Health Stories

This short film charts the Filmmaker-in-Residence project's five-year history, investigating the creative process from within as media makers join health care workers to reflect on ethics, interventionist filmmaking and shifting cinematic genres. Intricate, difficult and delicate situations come alive in this documentary, featuring seven distinct yet interconnected experiments in collaborative media.

This short documentary follows a group therapy workshop for people who have attempted to end their lives more than once. A hybrid of vérité and animation, the film is a candid portrayal of 12 people who together, for 20 weeks, take on their fears, their behaviours and their ghosts to move towards life and away from suicide.

Drawing from Life is a production of the National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker-in-Residence project, produced with the creative participation of Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology, Animation Arts Centre.

This feature-length film about poverty in Montreal is set against a soundtrack that includes rap, blues, rock, and country and western music. The film deals with the universal themes of hunger, hope and love and is named after an actual Montreal restaurant that's been serving those in need for over 25 years. In French with English subtitles.

This short film is a witty animation illustrating the 11 guiding principles of the Filmmaker-in-Residence Manifesto.

A fifth of Canadians live at the subsistence level. This is a look at that world, where the street is home, and where poor shelter, poor food, poor schools and poor health are the only certainties of life. Children, old people, the sick and the drifters are caught in it. It is a world filmed throughout Canada so that people who are not part of it can see it, think about it, and maybe help to change it.

This feature documentary is considered to be the forerunner of the NFB's Challenge for Change Program. The film offers in inside look at 3 weeks in the life of the Bailey family. Trouble with the police, begging for stale bread, and the birth of another child are just some of the issues they face. Through it all, the father tries to explain his family's predicament. Although filmed in Montreal, the film offers an anatomy of poverty as it occurs throughout North America.

This cinéma vérité documentary is an intimate look inside one family’s struggle with poverty. Kay Rice, her partner Karl and 6 children move from town to town in search of affordable housing. Unable to find steady work, the Rices rely on food banks and charity to make ends meet. "I know we're poor, but it's what we are, not who we are," says Kay, as she embarks on a fresh start by fixing up a rundown rental home. When things turn sour with the landlord, Kay fears his veiled threats may mean losing her children and decides to take him to court. In capturing the stark realism of a life with few options, No Place Called Home puts a face on what it means to be poor in Canada.

In this short documentary, social activist and educator Rosemary Brown speaks to the high school students about the incidence of poverty among women. The film outlines the role of women in the work force and in society, as well as the causes of and possible solutions to the 'feminization of poverty.'

This short documentary follows Jimmy Quinlan, one of the estimated 5000 men and women who lived in the streets and alleys of Montreal in the late 1970s. The film casts a harsh light on the realities of life on the street, as Jimmy battles his addictions; sobriety is a goal he's tried to achieve before and will probably have to try again. In and out of shelters, Jimmy's life is anything but stable, but his unique personality shines through in this affecting portrait.

Shot at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland, this documentary reveals the workings of a contemporary health-care facility. Accompanied by hospital staff, we travel through labs, pharmacies, supply rooms, operating theatres and patient rooms from the maternity ward to the morgue. As debate in Canada and the world rages over health care, Hospital City offers a moving, human portrait of the people whom the issues touch most closely.

This short film was an experiment in using video recordings and closed circuit television to stimulate social action in a poor Montreal neighbourhood. A citizen's committee filmed people's concerns and then played back the tapes for the community. Upon recognizing their common problems, people began to talk about joint solutions. It proved an important and effective method of promoting social change.