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Substance Abuse (11)
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Bevel Up: Chapter 5 - Street YouthNettie Wild 2019 5 minStreet nurse Elaine Jones hands out coloured condoms and encourages a young woman to get a pregnancy test. Elaine also meets a 16-year-old, new to the city and shooting heroin for the first time, and works to connect her with services.
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Donna's StoryDoug Cuthand 2001 50 minThis intimate documentary paints a portrait of one Cree woman who left life on the streets to re-emerge as a powerful voice counseling Indigenous adults and youth about abuse and addiction. Raised in foster homes and caught up in drugs and prostitution by the age of 13, Donna Gamble shares her exhilarating and tumultuous journey and what motivated her to turn her life around. Together with her mother and daughters, Donna is working to shatter the cycle of addiction that has plagued their family for generations.
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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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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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Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of EmpathyElle-Máijá Tailfeathers 2021 2 h 4 minFollow filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers as she creates an intimate portrait of her community and the impacts of the substance use and overdose epidemic. Witness the change brought by community members with substance-use disorder, first responders and medical professionals as they strive for harm reduction in the Kainai First Nation.
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Life on Victor StreetKirby Hammond 2012 29 minThis short documentary depicts an Aboriginal Winnipeg teen’s struggle to stay in school and away from local gangs. Filmed over 2 years, the film is a moving portrait of one family trying to break the cycle of addiction, violence and poverty in an environment filled with anger and despair.
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MouseologyBretislav Pojar 1994 8 minUsing the comic device of trained laboratory mice, this animated short examines the insidious nature of addiction to cigarette smoking, how it can begin in young people, and how difficult it is to quit.
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NarkobluesBretislav Pojar & Ivan Vit 1997 8 minOn summer vacation a young teenager finds himself hanging out alone on the streets of his neighbourhood, all his friends having gone to the country with their parents. Near his home he meets a disturbing character, a drug pusher looking for clients, who introduces him to an artificial paradise. The teenager discovers a seductive and terrifying world that frequently draws him back to his neighbour.
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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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Place of the Boss: UtshimassitsJohn Walker 1996 48 minIn the '60s, the Mushuau Innu had to abandon their 6,000-year nomadic culture and settle in Davis Inlet. Their relocation resulted in cultural collapse and widespread despair.
