Public Health and Sanitation (37)

Being Prepared
Carol Kunnuk 2021 9 min
As the global pandemic reaches into the Arctic Archipelago, Inuk filmmaker Carol Kunnuk documents how unfamiliar new protocols affect her family and community. Her vividly specific soundtrack juxtaposes snippets from local radio broadcasts, issuing health advisories in both Inuktitut and English, with the sweet sounds of children at play. A richly detailed and tender account of disruption and adjustment.
Bevel Up - Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing
Nettie Wild 2007 45 min
Bevel Up follows street nurses as they reach out to people working in the sex trade, and people who use drugs in the alleys and hotels of Vancouver’s inner city. Most importantly the nurses reflect on the attitudes they bring to their work—attitudes that can make or break their relationships with the people to whom they provide practical, non-judgemental health care on a daily basis.

The Bevel Up Educational Playlists offer viewers a dynamic way to learn through more than four hours of additional footage, interviews and a Teachers Guide. The interactive resource gives students and instructors in the healthcare field access to the experiences of practitioners who work with people who use drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

For more information, images, and clips, click here.
Bevel Up: Chapter 1 - Opening
Nettie Wild 2019 5 min
The nurses meet Becky, give her a mouth pieces for a crack pipe, and chat about her pregnant daughter, Liz. Later, they meet Tracey in a hotel and discuss her upcoming test results.

*Watch the complete documentary.
*View all 10 educational playlists.
*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Beef Inc.

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Carmen Garcia 1999 50 min
A struggle for control of the world food market is waging, and the battle promises to escalate in the 21st century. Beef Inc. examines how a handful of companies have come to dominate beef production and distribution in North America.

As traditional farming falls victim to agri-business, small producers and consumers are paying the price. What has been a way of life for generations is now solely a money-making venture for big business. In the beef industry, a strategy of "intense livestock production" has been implemented to boost profit margins. Cattle are housed and fattened in overcrowded feed lots, a situation which exposes them to disease. To combat this, the animals are systematically vaccinated, given antibiotics and pumped with growth hormones. No regard is given to the potential health risks to consumers or the quality of the end product.

This film gives a voice to the independent cattle producer who, unable to compete with the corporations, find themselves being squeezed out of the industry. In French with English subtitles.
Bacon, The Film

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Hugo Latulippe 2002 51 min
Several years ago, large-scale hog producers and their political allies in Quebec decided to branch out into international markets. But bacon, like everything else, has its price. Bacon, the Film asks whether we have properly measured the social and environmental impacts of this proliferation of huge hog operations. The soil is already showing signs of sterility. Rivers are contaminated. Water, the very symbol of life, has itself become a hazard in some communities. The situation could be spinning out of control. Abandoned by the state, citizens groups are making their voices heard and taking back democracy. An unexpected grain of sand in a machine well oiled by neo-liberal dogma, they are fighting to keep society on a human scale.
Bevel Up: Chapter 2 - Wheels & Barry
Nettie Wild 2019 6 min
“Wheels” drinks from his wheelchair in a park. Barry sells and injects drugs in the alleys. The outreach nurses establish relationships with both to encourage ongoing care.

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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Bevel Up: Chapter 4 - Becky & Liz
Nettie Wild 2019 18 min
Street nurses Caroline Brunt and Sarah Levine find a homeless mother and daughter under a truck. Becky is seriously ill from an injection-related infection and is withdrawing from heroin. Her daughter, Liz, is pregnant and using “rock” cocaine. The nurses struggle to find them housing for the night as they negotiate with Becky to get health care and address her need for drugs.

*Watch the complete documentary.
*View all 10 educational playlists.
*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Bevel Up: Chapter 5 - Street Youth
Nettie Wild 2019 5 min
Street 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.

*Watch the complete documentary.
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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Bevel Up: Chapter 3 - Linda
Nettie Wild 2019 1 min
Street Nurse Liz James tries to stop Linda, who’s high on drugs, from falling into traffic. Liz offers to help Linda get into an emergency shelter. Linda tells Liz to go away.

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Bevel Up: Chapter 7 - Long Tran
Nettie Wild 2019 2 min
Street nurse Caroline Brunt and health care worker Tuan Luu meet a Vietnamese man who, like his father and grandfather, shoots heroin. Caroline teaches him how to inject safely—with the “bevel up.”

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Bevel Up: Chapter 6 - Lee
Nettie Wild 2019 3 min
Street nurses Caroline Brunt and Liz James inject Lee, a sex worker, with an antibiotic for syphilis. They also call Lee’s boyfriend and arrange to test him as well.

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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Deadly Deposits
Jay Falconer 1992 11 min
This short animation traces the coronary investigation by two doctors of a victim found dead in his department. Strangulation? Suffocation? Poisoning? A debate ensues as to whether or not the victim died of environmental causes due to his decades working in a rayon textile factory. The film takes a funny look at the very serious topic of airborne pollutants, and offers an entertaining opportunity to learn about their accumulation in our everyday environment.
The Bathtub
Francis Papillon 2022 3 min
In the spirit of sustainability, Iris offers to leave her bathwater for Cathon—but a minor detail gives her pause. Fun (or maybe not-so-fun) fact: during the Renaissance, people avoided bathing for fear that microbes would get into their bodies!
Little Big Girls
Hélène Choquette 2014 52 min
In this feature documentary, director Hélène Choquette sheds light on the phenomenon of early-onset puberty in girls. Today, it isn't unusual to see the earliest signs of puberty in girls younger than the age of 9, though this was not the case a few decades ago. A number of causes are suspected: could obesity and exposure to environmental contaminants, for instance, be to blame? The physical, psychological and psychosocial repercussions on young girls results in a disconnect between their physical and emotional maturity. Far from being a marginal issue, early-onset puberty is fast becoming a worldwide public health concern. Little Big Girls alerts us to the need to adapt, as a society, so as to minimize the impact of this phenomenon on our children.
My 2020

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Sarah McNair-Landry 2022 34 min
Over the course of a year, accompanied by her partner, Erik Boomer, and their spirited team of huskies, Sarah McNair-Landry recorded a fascinating cinematic travelogue, filled with breathtaking Arctic landscapes. Filmed from Nunavut to Idaho, the short documentary My 2020 is a meditation on isolation, freedom, tourism and the thirst for adventure.
Out Beyond Town
Evelyn Cherry 1948 11 min
After a farm child becomes sick, a visit from the sanitary inspector points out various precautions for maintaining a clean water supply and preventing the spread of disease. The local school is also given pointers on better sanitation.
Reflections on Practice: Therapeutic Communication
Nettie Wild 2007 1 min
Street nurse Liz James explains how to work with someone who’s in an unsafe situation but doesn’t want help.

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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Reflections on Practice: From Novice to Expert
Nettie Wild 2007 5 min
Street nurses Caroline Brunt and Janine Stevenson, nursing ethicist Paddy Rodney, and nursing-practice consultant Mary Adlersberg talk about the importance of learning and legitimizing nursing harm-reduction practices.

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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Reflections on Practice: Why Outreach?
Nettie Wild 2007 1 min
Street nurses Caroline Brunt and Liz James talk about how providing health care on the street is like throwing people a lifeline.

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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Reflections on Practice: Sex Work & Health
Nettie Wild 2007 3 min
Street nurse Liz James reminds us that sex workers who use drugs are “just people” with stories and experiences like everyone else. Liz explains that the key to creating a safe and open health-care relationship is to be compassionate while still asking frank and direct questions.

*Watch the complete documentary.
*View all 10 educational playlists.
*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Reflections on Practice: Access to Health Care
Nettie Wild 2007 1 min
Street nurse Caroline Brunt explores how detox or a supervised-injection site provide realistic first steps towards better health care.

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Reflections on Practice: Access to Health Care
Nettie Wild 2007 3 min
Street nurse Caroline Brunt talks about the important role friendly, low-barrier health services play in increasing the chances that people using drugs will access timely health care. Nurse ethicist Paddy Rodney analyzes the impact of health-care providers who direct anger towards people who use drugs.

*Watch the complete documentary.
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Reflections on Practice: Entrenchment
Nettie Wild 2007 1 min
Street nurse Elaine Jones reflects on the lure of the streets and why youth use drugs.

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Reflections on Practice: Supervised Injection
Nettie Wild 2007 1 min
Nursing-practice consultant Mary Adlersberg and nursing ethicist Paddy Rodney reflect on how the nurse incorporates teaching and health promotion while supporting safe injection.

*Watch the complete documentary.
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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Reflections on Practice: Safety
Nettie Wild 2007 2 min
Street nurse Caroline Brunt and nursing-practice consultant Mary Adlersberg offer safety strategies for nurses working on the streets.

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Reflections on Practice: Harm Reduction
Nettie Wild 2007 3 min
Nurse Elaine Jones and ethicist Paddy Rodney talk about the ethical questions involved in showing youth how to safely inject.

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Something in the Air
Sylvie Dauphinais 2001 24 min
A 2001 documentary about the dangers of pesticides used by potato farmers in Prince Edward Island. Filmmaker Sylvie Dauphinais made this documentary to issue a wake-up call about an environmental crisis that put the ill, the elderly and the young at great risk. Includes some subtitles.
Sabrina's Law

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Barry Lank 2007 42 min
A documentary on the creation of Sabrina's Law in the province in Ontario, the first legislation in the world to protect children with deadly allergies. On a September morning in 2003, Sara Shannon handed her 13-year-old daughter Sabrina lunch money, gave her a kiss and watched her walk into the halls of a high school in Pembroke, Ontario. The next day Sabrina Shannon died of complications brought about by anaphylactic shock. Suspected cause of death: french fries from the school cafeteria. French fries that she had eaten before, only this time the cafeteria was also serving poutine. All it would take is for the same tongs to be used in both dishes to set off Sabrina's reaction to dairy. Since then her parents have dedicated their lives to ensuring that what happened will never happen to another child.
Tobacco's Last Stand

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Robin Benger 2004 44 min
In this feature documentary, we head to Norfolk County, Ontario, an unusual Canadian town where anti-smoking forces are the enemy in a community that proudly celebrates the annual tobacco leaf harvest and supports a feisty pro-tobacco mayor. Firmly in denial about the consequences of second-hand smoke, community leaders proclaim their right to freedom and economic success against the backdrop of a growing anti-smoking campaign and a heated city council debate on making the community smoke-free.
Topics: Prohibition
Nettie Wild 2007 7 min
Lawyer Eugene Oscapella and addictions counsellor Mark Hayden talk about the legal, social, and ethical dilemmas of bringing health care to people who use drugs and decriminalizing drugs to improve health.

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Topics: Street Drugs 101
Nettie Wild 2007 34 min
Street nurse Fiona Gold and experts from the streets outline the effects and characteristics of common street drugs and how they are used.

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Topics: Pregnancy & Drugs
Nettie Wild 2007 7 min
Sarah Payne is the senior practice leader at the Fir Square Combined Care Unit with the BC Women’s Hospital. She describes an open-door harm-reduction philosophy where she and her colleagues advocate for providing support to keep mothers who use drugs and their babies together; she also discusses the effects of illicit drugs on babies.

*Watch the complete documentary.
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*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Topics: Street Nurses For Change
Nettie Wild 2007 6 min
What happens when advocating for best health-care practices is politically inconvenient? Street nurse Liz James talks about her role in Canada’s first underground needle exchange, and street nurse Fiona Gold describes how she supported North America’s first supervised-injection site; both nurses took risks, fought for change, and saved lives.

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Topics: Hospitals & Acute Care
Nettie Wild 2007 9 min
Emergency room nurse Jane McColl and ward nurse Joanne Simpson talk about how drugs are perceived by people who use them as a solution. The nurses also address the importance of practicing harm-reduction philosophy and approaches when providing care and services within an institution.

*Watch the complete documentary.
*View all 10 educational playlists.
*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Topics: Sex Work & Drugs
Nettie Wild 2007 10 min
Four sex workers—Sherri, Tina, Dee and Mum—explain the relationship between sex and drugs, revealing how it affects their health and can threaten their lives.

*Watch the complete documentary.
*View all 10 educational playlists.
*Explore the Teacher's Guide for this chapter.
Who Sheds His Blood
Judith Crawley 1941 10 min
This film estimates the tremendous value of the Blood Donor Clinic, organized in September, 1939, at the University of Toronto by Dr. C.H. Best. The serum is processed by the Connaught Laboratories in Toronto, under the authority of the Minister of Pensions and National Health, while the Red Cross maintains blood donor clinics across the country.
The Weight of the World

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Glynis Whiting 2003 51 min
This fascinating documentary looks at obesity. Stockholm’s Dr. Stephan Rossner, an obesity specialist, proves beyond doubt that obesity is a man-made epidemic. Super-sized fast foods and a $12 billion ad industry are proving to be lethal when mixed with a car-dominated culture, urban sprawl and labour-saving technologies. This film was launched by the NFB and the CBC in partnership with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Physical and Health Education Canada.

Public Health and Sanitation (37)

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