Catch the television premiere of Street Health Stories [the film]
on Sunday, September 23 on CBC News: Sunday
CBC: 10am – noon (local time)
CBC Newsworld: 9am – 11am (ET)
For repeat screenings check your local listings
1 comment September 21st, 2007
The phenomenal turnout today at the REPORT LAUNCH and EXHIBIT OPENING made me fall in love with Toronto all over again. Even though the subject was grim, the news tragic.
Over 250 of us gathered at the Church of the Holy Trinity: media, politicians, advocates and members of the homeless community to hear the STREET HEALTH REPORt statistics, to discuss 13 policy recommendations and to view and listen to STREET HEALTH STORIES photo + sound exhibit.
The full report is now available on-line at www.streethealth.ca
And the 8.5 minute film, STREET HEALTH STORIES, will premiere on CBC News: Sunday this weekend (check local listings).
Also check out the Toronto Star front page story that kick-started the day today.
A massive turn-out at historic Church of the Holy Trinity.
A moving thank you to our heroes, the Street Health nurses.
Susan.
Nancy.
Jess, one of the four artists.
Ontario Minister of Health, George Smitherman, listening to Rook.
NDP Party Leader Jack Layton and Adrienne and Meghan, 2 of the artists.
Erika, Meghan, Xzavior, Calysta, Jess and Kate.
The I WAS HERE team. (with a few of our colleagues missing! I think I saw Dawn behind video camera at this moment, and where was Alice!!?)
And a big shout out to Orla, Michael, Branden, Jenn, Jane, Donna, Jacques who all spent long hours to get this up and running. And a big thanks to Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital for sponoring the build of three beautiful light-boxes. And great pix from Jag. so thanks all!
3 comments September 20th, 2007
Fresh on the heels of our *intervention* with our documentary THE INTERVENTIONISTS in front of the Toronto Police Services Board, our film repeats on CBC-Newsworld on Sunday, August 12, at 9 p.m.
And we just received a copy of a letter from the chair of the civilian Board, Alok Mukherjee (a fascinating human rights activist). Here’s a excerpt:
“The film gives an in-depth understanding of the important role which members of our joint MCIT play in assisting people in crisis. It is clear to me MCIT is an effective alternative to treating emotionally disturbed individuals as exclusively “law and order” problems, and may have saved lives. The fact that Coronoer’s Juries have supported extending the MCIT model to other communities supports this view.
“THE INTERVENTIONISTS succeeds very well in visually documenting the work of our MCITs and it is therefore a valuable tool for public education and awareness. I believe it will help spread the word…”
Add comment August 12th, 2007
There is arguably nothing more rewarding for a documentary filmmaker than to have a film become part of a political process.
This afternoon, we showed an excerpt of The Interventionists at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting. They run the police in our city. (When he introduced us, the Chair of the Board revealed he had attended our premiere at the Rendez Vous with Madness festival last fall. I had no idea!)
Dr. Ian Dawe, my co-presenter, then made a compelling argument for three recommendations to the Board about Mobile Crisis Intervention Teams.
1) Equal access to services across the city (there’s still big areas in the city without service)
2) Extension of hours of operation of the teams
3) Using the film to build awareness around mental heath throughout Police Services
Vice-Chair Pam McConnell said that the film “Gives us all a peek into not only the crises, but into the skills needed to do this important work.” She also talked about the need for proper supportive housing to prevent mental health crises from escalating in the first place.
Then, she moved to adopt a resolution in principle for all three recommendations, and to ask the Police Chief review and report on the current MCITs in the city, with a view to adjust the operational budget accordingly.
Police Chief Blair said the team has “proven its value” and that the Police are already actively looking to extend the reach.
The resolution passed unanimously.
Interestingly, we are cited in another item on today’s agenda. John Sewell of the Toronto Police Accountability Coalition sent a letter to the Board reacting to the Police Chief’s recent request to purchase 3,000 tasers for 8.5 million dollars.
Sewell writes: “We note the Board will receive a presentation on the film ‘The Interventionists’ … We believe that the best way to respond to the kind of crises which provoke Taser use, is through such units. Currently, units are not available 24 hours a day throughout the city — they are used in only a few divisions, and only until 11 pm. The issue is money, and as our group has urged in the past, money is better spent on Mobile Crisis Units than on Tasers.”
And as we were leaving, the Board was about to discuss another very sad, related matter: the Police response to the Jury Recommendations from the Coroner’s Inquest into the Death of Otto Vass. Vass, diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, died while being taken into custody forcefully by the police in 2000.
That was the year the MCIT was just getting started. But, alas on the southeast side of town, not in the west where this event occurred. So there was no chance of ever finding out if MCIT might have prevented such a tragic outcome.
Add comment July 11th, 2007
An important new book is hitting bookstands soon, and it’s getting high praise.
“The best book ever written about AIDS,” says Stephen Lewis, ”Certainly the best book I’ve ever read.”
Stephanie Nolen’s 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa chronicles the African AIDS crisis through the stories of 28 individuals living with and fighting the disease. Nolen chose 28, one for each of the million people on the continent infected with AIDS.
One of Nolen’s 28 is Alice Kadzanja, an HIV-positive nurse working with Dignitas International, at Zomba District hospital in Malawi. You may remember Alice from our film The Bicycle, and our chapter about Dignitas on our website.
In fact, Nolen met and interviewed Alice the same time I was filming with her. I recall Alice laughing shyly as she went from one interview to the other, all the while juggling patients at the bustling clinic.
Alice, together with the other 27 from across the continent (including a truck-driver, an orphan, a prostitute and a political activist) are the human stories - and the heroes - behind the inhuman statistics of the African AIDS crisis.
The book comes out April 24.
Dignitas Head Nurse Alice Kadzanja
1 comment April 5th, 2007
There are some interesting comments on the cbc.ca/sunday site to our broadcast last sunday, including a note from the streetcar operator who witnessed the Edmund Yu shooting 10 years ago.
A few comments come from family members who have had experience with mental health crises. Two other commentators are critical of the nurse’s choice not to give one person a hug.
The “No Hugs Policy” scene often gets audiences talking. (In the film, after responding to a call involving a suicidal threat, after spending over an hour talking, one person asks the nurse for a hug as they are saying goodbye. The nurse tells him she does not give hugs, but offers to shake his hand).
Noteably, audiences with healthcare backgrounds tell me they understand why the nurse made this decision about her own personal space, while general audiences sometimes react disapprovingly.
But the most significant audience reaction I’ve had to the scene, came from a consumer survivor (a person who has had first-hand experience with the mental health system). A while back, we had asked her to provide commentary for our study guide to the film, and this is how she responded. (Her comments here, by the way, were spontaneous, I had not asked her specifically about the “No Hugs Policy.”)
She said: “…And I also thought it was really great that the nurse, that she was very clear about her boundaries. When you’re in crisis it’s very helpful when the folks who are assisting are very clear. This is who I am, this is what I can offer, this is what we’re going to do, These are your choices. I don’t give hugs. I thought she did a very good job with that.”
Many of her and others’ insights into the film and issues — in consumer survivors’ own voices — will be made available in The Study Guide, which we hope to release soon, so stay tuned.
Add comment March 14th, 2007
I’m back. And back at it.
Tomorrow, Filmmaker-in-Residence is on Toronto’s top morning show, CBC’s Andy Barrie to talk about the upcoming broadcast of The Interventionists.
And we’ve had a fine review of our website from the man behind Cinema Politica in a new online political arts journal, Art Thread Threat.
Ezra says: “Prepare to be comforted, engaged, inspired, enraged, and informed as a tapestry of rich music, video, photography, text, graphics and sounds cajole you into the world of the Filmmaker-in-Residence program… The media that will pour out of your computer screen, wrap round your head, nuzzle against you while also slapping you awake, is one of the most refreshing, engaging and political pieces I have seen on the internet.” Read more…
And while I was gone, two women in our photoblogging group gave birth to two beautiful little girls. Happy First International Women’s Day to you both!
1 comment March 8th, 2007
Just a quick note before i go internet-less for 10 days. We are happy to announce the world television premiere of a cutdown version of our Filmmaker-in-Residence film THE INTERVENTIONISTS on Sunday, March 11th on CBC: News Sunday, between 10am-12pm. Please check your local listings.
Add comment February 24th, 2007
The photo exhibit is making the rounds. Today, it went up in its new location for the week: the historic entrance of the hospital, on Bond Street. It’s full of marble and grating and fancy lights. This entrance first opened in 1937, and now is often used for period film and tv shoots.
And Saturday’s National Post featured a 2-page photo spread from the exhibit (and got lots of people out to the Toronto Free Gallery, apparently!), and we were on CBC Ontario Today, today: Listen to the Item
Add comment February 6th, 2007
We’ve been blogged by our new friend photojunkie.
He’s one of the famed photobloggers of Toronto, who are reshaping the visual and the political imaginings of our city.
Add comment February 2nd, 2007
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jan | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||