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Persons with Disabilities (3)
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Bearing Witness: Luke MelchiorDan Curtis 2003 51 minThis feature documentary is a portrait of Luke Melchior (1973-2021) who, at 26, had already lived longer than most people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a progressive wasting of the muscles. Knowing his life would be relatively short had made Luke feel an urgency about making a lasting contribution. Living independently, with the help of 3 homecare workers, he ran a web-based business selling outdoor gear, and chaired the board of the Disability Resource Centre in Victoria, BC, where he was a passionate advocate for the rights of the disabled.
Bearing Witness consists of 3 films, each approximately one hour long, on people with life-threatening illnesses. The series also profiles Jocelyn Morton, who died of liver cancer at 44, and Robert Coley-Donohue, who died of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) at age 74. -
Everyone's BusinessMary Armstrong 1982 20 minThe Churchill Park Greenhouse Cooperative in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, is a small produce business, much like any other trying to survive in a deteriorating economy. What makes it special is that eight out of the nine co-op members are disabled. Growing, washing, drying and packing vegetables, handling sales, bookkeeping, paying bills and sometimes postponing their own paycheques in order to see the co-op through hard financial times, these determined individuals are dynamic and self-sufficient members of society.
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Eye Witness No. 111949 11 minIn this installment of the Eye Witness series, we look at classrooms on rails, circa 1949. We visit Ontario forests north of Lake Superior, where children come from miles away to attend school in a school car. They receive a month's worth of homework at a time, to keep them busy until the next time the classroom comes around. In Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, we see a unique workshop that trains the physically-challenged as furniture makers and seamstresses, allowing them to earn a living and build self-reliance.
