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THE STREET + THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN
A special series of four superb documentaries examining life on the edge.Nettie Wild's Bevel Up: Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing
Dilip Mehta 's The Forgotten Woman
Murray Siple's Carts of Darkness
Michele Ohayon's It Was a Wonderful Life
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Nurses and filmmakers mix science, art and compassion at the
Vancouver International Film Centre with
Bevel Up: Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing
Saturday, April 26 - 7:00 PM
Sunday, April 27 - 7:00 PM
Canada 2007 // Director: Nettie Wild // 45 min + discussion // Digibeta // Media Resources
PRESS SCREENING: Friday April 4, 11 am at the Vancity Theatre. RSVP to laine@viff.org
Nettie Wild and a member of the Street Nurse team from The BC Centre For Disease Control will be at the press screening to present both the documentary and selected menus from the interactive DVD Bevel Up. They will also present both the documentary and selected menus at both public screenings.
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Bevel Up:Drugs, Nurses and Outreach Nursing explores a key question facing healthcare providers across this country -- how can a nurse or outreach worker deliver effective and compassionate health care to people who use drugs?
At the heart of Bevel Up, is a compelling documentary following a team of street nurses through their day-to-day work in the alleys and hotels of Vancouver’s inner city. The footage is startling in its intimacy, compassion and real-life drama. Most importantly, the nurses reflect on attitudes they bring to their work – attitudes that can make or break the relationship needed to successfully provide practical and nonjudgmental health care.
But Bevel Up is more than a 45 min documentary. This intriguing DVD explores a new style of filmmaking for director, Nettie Wild (FIX: The Story of an Addicted City, A Place Called Chiapas). With Bevel Up, she uses an interactive DVD format to combine the cinema verite documentary with 3.5 hours of teaching menus. This extended format encourages the viewer to delve deep into relevant ethical, practical and legal issues which confront healthcare providers on a daily basis in big cities and small towns across Canada. Leading experts in their field address key subjects such as Drugs and the Brain, Pregnancy, Mental Health, Prohibition and Sex Work.
A member of the acclaimed Outreach Street Nurse Program from the BC Centre for Disease Control will join Nettie Wild for both screenings at the Vancity Theatre. The documentary will be followed by a selection of menu items selected in response to questions and issues raised by the audience.
The Street Nurse Program and Bevel Up won the 2007 BC Provincial Health Officer’s Award of Excellence.
Over two years in production, Bevel Up was created in collaboration with the street nurses and a crew of Canada’s leading cinema artists: Director Nettie Wild was joined by cinematographer Kirk Tougas who has shot all of her films, long time collaborator and producer Betsy Carson, and editor Mike Brockington (Eve and the Fire Horse, On the Corner.) The DVD was designed by Sequence— Ian Kirby and Caleb Bouchard (The Corporation, Broken Saints.)
Bevel Up is a co-production of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and the National Film Board of Canada, with financial support from Health Canada and the BC Nurses’ Union. It was created in collaboration with Canada Wild Productions.
“The scope of topics and the ethical questions raised are outstanding - simply amazing."
— Community Health Nurse, Manitoba
“As a recovered addict who spent time on the streets Toronto, I have never seen a more accurate or compassionate documentary about addictions.”— “Stacey”
“Compassionate and thoroughly professional … Bevel Up belongs in nursing colleges and medical schools across the country." -— B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall.
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Screeners & clip reel available
Media Contacts:
Laine Slater (Vancity Theatre) 604.685.0260 x 809 laine@viff.org
Nettie Wild (Director): 604 837 6142 nwild@canadawildproductions.com
Jennifer Wesanko (NFB) 604.666.1151 j.wesanko@nfb.ca
Official Site: http://www.bevelup.com/
Dowload a full press kit: RIGHT CLICK HERE and choose "Save Link As" or "Save Target As"
View a clip: http://www.bevelup.com/dvd.php?vw=1
To download photos:http://www.nfb.ca/photogallery
Click:“I agree” disclaimer; click: Bevel Up
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The Forgotten Woman
Canada, 2008 // Director: Dilip Mehta // 90 min
Screening dates and times TBA
Dilip Mehta, Deepa Mehta's brother, a renowned photographer, returns to India in the wake of his sister's Oscar-nominated film Water to examine the current situation of the widows there today. His directorial debut comes as a sort of critical response to all the questions raised in Water about women's rights and the ongoing issues at isolated ashrams. The film is written by Deepa Mehta.
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The Forgotten Woman aims to bring about an understanding of the destitution and marginalization of many of the millions of widows in India today, who are forced by age-old traditions to live out their remaining years isolated from and shunned by the society at large. The film explores how these widows, coerced by their families to give up their possessions, become non-entities in society.
Media contact: Bonne Smith, Star PR 416.488.4436 or starpr@sympatico.ca
For images and a downloadable press kit: http://www.mongrelmedia.com/press/Forgotten_Woman/index.html
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Carts of Darkness
Canada 2008 // Director: Murray Siple // 63 min
Screening dates and times TBA
The treacherous mountain roads and discarded shopping carts of North Vancouver become the rivers and boats of self-exploration for a group of homeless ‘free birds’ who have few chances at joy. The film adopts the tropes of extreme sports filmmaking; fluid flowing cinematography, intense music, visceral pulse pounding action and irreverent characters unbounded by society’s constrictions, to bring viewers deep into a world and deep into people they would normally look away from.
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Shot in stunning high-definition and featuring tracks from Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Vetiver, Bison, and Alan Boyd, of Little Sparta, Carts Of Darkness is a story of endurance that captures the risk and intensity of life lived on the very edge.
Comments from Director Murray Siple from the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival program.
I have not always relied on a wheelchair for my mobility. As an able-bodied person I was a high school quarterback, dedicated mountain biker, skateboarder, and a snowboarder. It sounds like I was a jock but I just liked being athletic and getting outdoors. I went to college at Emily Carr, afterwards living in Whistler, B.C, where I directed five independent action sport videos that were pre-“X-games” and pre-“mainstream extreme”. I set down deep roots in a short period while living in the mountain community; and traveled internationally filming snow and skateboarding. That lifestyle/ dream was destroyed in 1996 when a high-speed motor vehicle accident compounded by an emergency room error rendered me a quadriplegic. Throughout the following eight years, I continued to hope that my life could still somehow include my passion for filmmaking. Eventually, I was able to renovate a home in North Vancouver that became a model of accessibility and independence. I learned to drive a van which extended my freedom, but my limited hand dexterity made it difficult to work a camera like I had before. The next few years were chiefly spent adjusting to my disability and trying to ignore the craving to make films.
I discovered the story behind Carts of Darkness when I was grocery shopping one evening. I noticed some loud individuals who were cashing in bottles. I had a romantic vision that both of our lifestyles were stereotypes to the passing customers: the drunken and comically disordered bottle returners, and me, wheelchair-bound and precarious in my adapted vehicle. When I approached the men with the idea to make a film, a world was revealed to me I had never expected to discover in my own neighbourhood.
Official Site, photos and trailer: http://murraysiple.com/
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It Was a Wonderful Life
USA 1993 // Director: Michele Ohayon // 82 min
Screening dates and times TBA
In this award-winning festival standout, Academy Award-nominee Michèle Ohayon ("Colors Straight Up") presents a riveting and powerful account of six women who are members of America's growing "hidden homeless" population. Narrated by Jodie Foster, and with an original musical score by Melissa Ethridge, this heart-wrenching film expertly captures the hardships and triumphs these courageous women experience in their daily struggle for survival.
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You won't see them on street corners, hand held out for change. At first glance you would not even realize that they are women without homes. They are clean, educated, well-groomed and articulate. They live invisibly throughout society - the hidden homeless.
It Was A Wonderful Life follows the stories of six different hidden homeless women as they struggle to survive, one day at a time, and find a place for themselves in a society ill-equipped to deal with the "used to haves."
Many of the women were left in financial straits following a divorce, loss of a job or a long illness, and were reduced to living out of their cars. Their clothes, dogs, and whatever remains of their former lives are packed in the back seat. Few receive welfare or any other form of assistance. They eke out an existence picking up bits of work here and there. The women avoid public shelters where they might be raped or robbed, preferring to sleep in their cars, or find temporary shelter with friends.
With strength, humor and pride, these women manage to survive. They challenge our notion of who can feel secure in our society.
"Ohayon's compassionate, intelligent film reminds us that homelessness among the formerly affluent is no more or less horrible than it is among the poor..." — LA Weekly
"Compassionately insightful ... highlights the need to aid people before they are hopeless as well as homeless." — Booklist
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VIFC TICKETS AND INFO
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Call the Starbucks Hotline 604.683.FILM (3456)
for the latest info and listings. Tickets can be purchased in advance
on-line at www.vifc.org or
in person 30 minutes before showtime.
Double Bill Pricing!
The Vancity Theatre is offering double bills at a special price. At
just $12 for two films ($10 for Students/Seniors and Bronze and above
members), it's one of the cheapest (and still most comfy) seats in
town!
Note: Double Bill pricing is not
available for online sales. However, you can purchase your first ticket
online at the regular price and get the double-bill price on the second
ticket when you arrive at the box office. Double Bills are two
consecutive films on the same day at the Vancity Theatre; rentals and
Special Events are not included.
Adult tickets: $9.50 (Double Bill - $12)
Student/Senior $7.50 (Double Bill - $10)
Matinees $7.50
Bronze and above members receive a $2
discount on their tickets. (Double Bill - $10)
Silver and above members
also receive a $2 discount for a guest ticket.
As a registered non-profit society, the
VIFC screens films that have not always been seen by the BC Film
Classification Board. Under BC law, any person wishing to see these
unclassified films must belong to the VIFC Society and be 18 years or
older. Valid for one year based on the date of purchase, the VIFC basic
membership cost is $12, but includes the ticket price of your first
film.
Please note that membership benefits and
restrictions are valid for VIFC presentations only. They are not applicable to Vancity Theatre "Rental" presentations by
other organizations.
For More Membership Information go to http://www.vifc.org/membership.html.
Vancity Theatre is located at 1181 Seymour St. (at
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