Vancouver

This is a story about Violet-Rose Pharoah, a former child in care. After she overcame the challenges of aging out, she started a blog “The File Folder” that allows other young people who were in care to share their experiences. Her goal is to collect 365 successful stories and motivate kids who are currently in care to make a more successful transition to adulthood.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development in British Columbia provides foster care for children from birth to the age of 19. But when youth reach their 19th birthday, the parental role of the government finishes abruptly – even though young people may not yet be ready for independent living. This automatic termination of support is known as “aging out.” Experts say that this is the most challenging moment in the lives of youth in care, and the weakest part of the foster-care system. This is a story about Violet-Rose Pharoah, a former child in care. After she overcame the challenges of aging out, she started a blog “The File Folder” that allows other young people who were in care to share their experiences. Her goal is to collect 365 successful stories with the goal of motivating kids who are currently in care to make a more successful transition to adulthood. She remembers how lonely and unsupported she felt when she was discharged from care, and she knows that even today many youth feel the same way. She hopes now to build up a network of online support, to show other kids that they are not alone.

A FILM ABOUT DIY CULTURE, LOUD MUSIC, ILLEGAL VENUES AND THE WAR ON FUN. Featuring DOA, Subhumans, Skinny Puppy, 3 Inches of Blood, Japandroids + more. Is live music being silenced? Cities around the world are experiencing the death of the independent live music venue. With the proliferation of condo developments in low-income artist communities, ensuing noise complaints, the commercialization of large music venues, and the rise in stringent city zoning and liquor regulations, small local music venues around the world are struggling to stay open. Set in Vancouver, Canada which has long been known as No Fun City, this documentary is a passionate tale about a tight-knit music scene and its ongoing battle for a place to call home. Witnessing the ups and downs of life behind the scenes, the camera follows as venues are shut down, parties are raided, and musicians resort to playing in illegal venues, DIY warehouses, and even parking lots, mostly located in the downtown eastside Canada's poorest zip code. These brave supporters of punk and metal face irate neighbours, police raids, evictions, deportation, million dollar lawsuits, and even city hall in order to keep their underground music scene alive.

Redefining the traditional scope of documentary film in an electronic age, 65_RedRoses leaves viewers with a new appreciation of life and the digital world. This personal and touching journey takes an unflinching look into the lives of Eva Markvoort and her two online friends who are all battling Cystic Fibrosis (CF) – a fatal genetic disease affecting the lungs and digestive system. Unable to meet in person because of the spread of infections and super bugs, the girls have become each other’s lifelines through the Internet, providing unconditional love, support and understanding long after visiting hours are over. Now at a critical turning point in their lives, the film travels the distance the friends cannot go themselves, capturing the compelling and often heartbreaking realities they face, just trying to take each breath.

Sam is running for mayor. Sam Sullivan was a local curiosity, the quadriplegic city councillor in a pinstripe suit, with a pipe dream of leading his shattered right-wing party back to power. Citizen Sam goes deep inside Sullivan's mayoral campaign to tell the remarkable story behind his rise from obscurity. As the campaign begins, Sullivan admits to giving addicts money to buy crack and heroin. His opponents call him a do-nothing politician and a nut. The media write him off while everyone tiptoes around the issue of his disability. 6 am. Sam is back on the phone, going over the day's schedule while he reverses the previous night's routine, into fresh clothes and then a precarious move from bed to chair. His partner, Lynn, adjusts his tie and leads him out the door to his first appointment, a radio debate. With unprecedented access, director Joe Moulins blends the rough and tumble of the campaign with intimate moments from Sullivan's daily life. A brutally frank and funny video diary counts down the days to the election. From war room to bedroom, Citizen Sam is an unflinching portrait of the one-of-a-kind politician who has become the face of Vancouver on the international stage.

Ben Viccari, media commentator, historian, and veteran journalist travels across the country examining the history and growth of Canada’s diverse ethnic media. From the earliest Icelandic newspaper in Winnipeg to a recently launched Burmese monthly, The Third Element provides an overview of how ethnic media shape the viewpoints of Canadians. Ben visits newspapers with vastly different environments. Most are family run and operate from home, while success stories include a newspaper in Vancouver whose publisher takes on multinational ethnic papers to reach staggering sales figures in 3 years! The growth of ethnic radio and television operations is portrayed with glimpses of programming by pioneering stations like CHIN Radio and OMNI TV. Set against the backdrop of history of immigrants in Canada, interviews with various editors and broadcasters reveal personal struggles and victories. A gala staged by The Canadian Ethnic Journalists’ and Writers’ Club shows how ethnic media celebrate successful writers and broadcasters with an awards ceremony. Join Ben on his journey to discover the expanse of Canada’s ethnic media landscape.

Dean Wilson used to be an IBM salesman. Now he is possibly the most outspoken drug addict in Canada. As president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) he is a loud and articulate advocate for street addicts from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods, and the site of the highest HIV rate in North America. Ann Livingston is the charismatic organizer of VANDU. She is a non-user, driven by an impatient spirituality and she is as confrontational as hell. Together, Ann and Dean lead an unpredictable crew of street addicts in their fight to open North America's first safe injection site for drug users. In 27 cities around the world, safe injection sites have been proven to save lives. Dean loves Ann. But he also is captured by the drugs he uses. Dean Wilson has found a curious ally in Philip Owen, the conservative Mayor of Vancouver who has alarmed members of his own party by championing a daring new drug philosophy called Harm Reduction. Philip Owen is a mayor struggling to transform his city from being North America's most notorious drug port into possibly becoming the first city on the continent to realistically face drug addiction. The Mayor is staking his political career on Harm Reduction. As the Mayor battles members of his own political party, Dean Wilson dares to face his own addiction. The stories of Fix span over two years as our characters' lives interconnect to reveal a battle for the hearts, minds and streets of a city each one calls home.

"What is it about feeling dirty that shames us into silence and disgust?" asks director Meghna Haldar in the feature documentary Dirt. From the slums of Kolkata to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to a barbeque joint in Central Texas – everyone has a different story – sex workers, poop scientists, sanitation artists, Catholic priests, cemetery workers, historians and little kids. Dirt isn't just a four letter word, it contains a world of meaning spanning the divine to the profane. A panoply of ideas, opinions and images captured with formal precision and overripe colour on super 16 mm, featuring animation to make Hieronymus Bosch blush, interviews with artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, tracks from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and an experimental soundscape by Clinker, Dirt digs deep to illuminate the positively filthy experience of being human. 52 minute version also available. In addition to festival screenings, Dirt has screened at the Global Conference on Multiculturalism, Conflict and Identity, Oxford University, University of Regina and will also be screened at a conference on dirt at NYMASA. Dirt will also be part of the Wellcome Trust museum exhibit on the same subject in London, 2011.