view counter
view counter

homelessness

Surviving In The Cracks

A group of ex-street kids advocate for social justice by writing and performing in a theatre production.

Le méchant trip / Exiles in Lotusland

Exiles in Lotus Land offers unprecedented intimacy into the lives of marginal youth, one that forces viewers to reconsider their view of society at large. Ultimately, it is a gripping love story, a bohemian cross-Canada road adventure with a shocking end. Dany (aka Ti-Criss) and Melissa (street name Melo) are a Quebecois couple living in Vancouver - 4000 kilometers from home, surrounded by a foreign language and homeless. They are among the Quebecois runaways who comprise a quarter of Vancouver's many street youth. While the unsettling story told in Exiles in Lotus Land reveals youth living on the razors edge, the greatest strength of Ilan Saragosti's documentary is his neutral gaze – treating the subjects neither with pity nor hero-worship - which affords a serious examination of marginality that acknowledges the subjects for who they are, and reaches out with the humanity they deserve.

Chichester's Choice

First-time filmmaker Simonee Chichester's father, Edgar, left her when she was just six years old. Since then, her only parent has been her overbearing and fiercely loving mother. Twenty-three years later, her father's alcoholism and depression have led him to the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil where he is homeless and seriously ill. Before it's too late, Chichester sets on an emotionally charged journey to get to know her father, beginning with a visit to his home in Guyana. From his family, she learns of the charismatic young man her father was, but also discovers disturbing layers of sexual abuse in their family. Shaken and full of doubt, Chichester continues her journey to Brazil where, despite tension between them, her mother helps her search the streets and shelters. But as Chichester soon realises, it's one thing to find your father, and quite another to face the man who is at the core of your innermost struggles. A deeply moving personal odyssey of revelation and absolution. Synopsis Written By Gisèle Gordon.
Syndicate content