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Runaways and Street Children (8)
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Beating the StreetsLorna Thomas 1998 48 minBeating the Streets traces six years in the lives of Marilyn Brighteyes and Lance Marty, two inner-city Aboriginal teenagers struggling to turn their lives around. And it is the story of Joe Cloutier, the teacher -- and former dropout -- determined to help them.
In Beating the Streets, Marilyn and Lance candidly discuss the abuse and violence that drove them into prostitution and drug dealing. The video also introduces Joe's innovative approach, combining alternative education and popular theatre as a way to get young people off the streets.
The film begins in 1986, when Joe creates the Inner City Drama Association (ICDA) for teens like Marilyn and Lance. They participate in theatre workshops led by actors like Tantoo Cardinal Dances with Wolves and their plays explore important issues like substance abuse, family violence, suicide and racism. Performances lead to discussions with the audience in an effort to seek healthy solutions.
Then, in 1993, Lance encourages Joe to take on the immense challenge of opening an alternative school -- Inner City High -- for teens at risk. And we witness a remarkable transformation in Lance and Marilyn as they become leaders at the school. -
Exiles in LotuslandIlan Saragosti 2005 1 h 10 minThis feature documentary tells the story of 2 teens who head out west in search of self. Like a quarter of Vancouver’s itinerant youth population, Mélo and Ti-criss made the trip from Quebec, hopeful for a better life. Still minors, the pair seeks escape and adventure, perhaps the meaning of life. From east to west, from the streets to a hotel, with a welcome interlude in the country, they seek their place in society.
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GoldtoothDerek Lamb 1994 29 minAn adventure film on substance abuse prevention. Goldtooth is a dramatic adventure story about the childhood and youth of Karate, the hero of the NFB cartoon Karate Kids. As a boy Karate gets into drugs and falls under the influence of a clever drug dealer and pimp named Goldtooth. Karate is arrested, and while he is in jail Goldtooth persuades Karate's sister Nina to become a prostitute. When Karate gets out of detention he rescues Nina, but tragedy ensues. In the end, Goldtooth's true nature is revealed. This is a story about children who are on the streets where drugs, alcohol and solvents are used every day. Life is hard for these kids. Many of them use substances for their own personal reasons and needs. What happens to some of them is deadly. This video may help young people talk about substance abuse and street life. It can help them ask: How do we see ourselves? How can we take care of ourselves? Who are my real friends? How can I stay off drugs? This video can inspire anyone who wants to listen to young people and help them.
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Holding Our GroundAnne Henderson 1988 50 minFilmed in a squatter community of Labangon in Cebu, Philippines, Holding Our Ground is the inspiring story of a group of women who have organized collectively to pressure their government for land reform, to establish their own money-lending system and to create shelters for street kids. A story of grassroots organizing that can be a model in both hemispheres.
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A Kind of FamilyAndrew Koster 1992 53 minThis feature documentary tells the complex and touching story of Winnipeg city councilor Glen Murray and his 17-year-old adopted son Mike, whose struggles with addiction and behavioural problems cyclically repeat. Glen, now an Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament, was one of the first openly gay elected politicians in Canada. He adopted Mike during an era when homophobic stereotypes often prevented gay men and women from adopting children. Glen and Mike's relationship is always tenuous and always turbulent as they struggle to define themselves together and alone.
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No Quick FixAndrée Cazabon 2000 51 minA revealing portrait of two young addicts, their life on the street and their despairing parents who find themselves powerless to save their children from the habit that is consuming them. As filmmaker Andrée Cazabon follows Cathy and Laurent for many months, recording their desperate drug-fuelled existence, she remembers her own life on the street. "My parents and I relived that horror," she says of her creative journey. But it was for all parents that she made this film. Cathy's and Laurent's parents live in a permanent state of bewildered anxiety and guilt. How can they avoid being totally destroyed by grief? How do they manage to carry on with their lives, in spite of everything? And how do they deal with a system that views them with suspicion? By grimly showing two children in the grip of a brutal addiction, No Quick Fix hopes to alleviate and identify some of the enormous pain endured by parents coping with an addicted child. In French with English subtitles.
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Street KidsPeg Campbell 1985 21 minIn this short documentary, a succession of black and white photographs provides a gritty look at juvenile prostitution and at the young people, male and female, struggling to get off the streets. Highlighting the links between being sexually abused as a child, loss of self-esteem, and turning to the streets, the film quickly dispels the images of glamor and big money usually associated with prostitution, and shows the positive efforts of child-care workers to help juvenile prostitutes find a way out.
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The Streets of SaigonMichael Rubbo 1973 28 minThis is a "social study" in the true sense, filmed in the streets of Saigon while the Vietnamese war was still going strong. Life went on fairly normally except for the noticeable presence of the military, and the number of children, orphaned, homeless, thrown on their own resources to make a living in the streets. It is these children who are in the forefront of the film, along with some American volunteers who tried to help them.
