This is a story of teenage girls living in Toronto's inner core, raised in shelters and housing projects. These girls feel so isolated and disconnected that joining a clique or gang becomes the only way to belong. For them violence is empowerment. The film looks at the sources of their violence: racial tension, family problems and some programs that help them cope and overcome their destructive behaviour.
Home safe Toronto focuses on the children and families who experience poverty and homelessness in one of Canada's most prosperous cities. Researched and produced with the children and parents who appear in the film, it reflects their experience and thoughts about what it will take to end poverty and homelessness. It shows how the housing crisis in Canada is an expression of the increasing economic and job insecurity that has devastated the manufacturing sector in the Greater Toronto Area and throughout southern Ontario.
Spent 10 months following 3 young Canadian men's lives, from their criminal exploits and encounters with the justice system to their relationships with family, friends, and each other. The stories that unfold are of struggle: to succeed when poverty, lack of education and opportunity pull you down; to escape from the only life you've known; and to make positive choices in the face of anger and aimlessness.
With beautiful visuals and engaging stories, Nourish explores the provocative question: What's the story of your food? By providing a "big picture" view of our food system, Nourish reveals the many ways that food connects to our environment, our health and our communities. Most importantly, Nourish offers specific action steps that viewers can take to help create a sustainable food future.
A harrowing examination of Canada's street youth and shelter system. Traces the journey of three kids who ran away at age 13 to the streets. Offers a rare glimpse of the country's homeless youth through the eyes of the kids, their street mom "Angel", and the unusual shelter she operates.
Ashley Smith was a troubled 19-year-old when she choked herself to death at Ontario's Grand Valley Institution for Women. Her death made national headlines and led to a scathing report by Canada's federal prison ombudsman. Incarceration for Ashley began at a youth detention centre in New Brunswick.Her one-month sentence stretched to almost four years, served in five provinces. She needed mental health care but never got it. With the prison videotapes and exclusive access to Smith's parents, along with a fellow inmate, the Fifth estate exposes a system that fails the many Ashley Smiths still incarcerated in Canadian institutions.
Explores the impact of residential schools on former students and the larger Aboriginal community, and presents ideas for what more can be done to address this painful chapter in Canada's history.
What is the relationship between addiction and homelessness? Where does personal responsibility fit into the equation? Should street addicts be left to their own devices, or do full-service shelters, legalized heroin dispensaries, and other provisions make for smart urban policy? In search of answers, Misha Klieder has put away his sociology textbooks and opted for real-life experience-spending close to a month sleeping and scavenging in the crime-infested Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada.
