A Unique Approach

At all times we are aware that we are both producing a film and assisting nine women in the midst of desperate poverty, psychological trauma, addiction and self-defeating behaviours.  Even before we began shooting, and depending upon which story you believe, our first street sister, Charlene Waskahat, fell/jumped/or was pushed out of a window at the Balmoral Hotel and died.   Charlene's death reinforced the importance, indeed the urgency of making this show and ensuring that the women are given every opportunity to change their lives.

Thus, rather than remaining strictly observational, we have chosen to take an interventionist approach to the subject matter of Street Sisters. By intervention we mean, primarily, that the filmmakers interact directly in the subjects' lives. We reject the detachment of many of the great documentary filmmakers of our time and choose instead to follow in the footsteps of Linda Hattendorf (The Cats of Mirikitani) who invited an 85-year-old homeless man into her home in the aftermath of 9/11; Mark Singer whose documentary, Dark Days, followed a group of people living in an abandoned section of the New York City underground railway system, employing them as his crew; and most recently, Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's Born Into Brothels, which ends with the filmmakers providing an opportunity for the children to escape the brothels.

Our interventions have included finding Sonia's son whom she hasn't seen in 11 years and reuniting them; advocating in court for two of the street sisters, allowing both to be freed on bail and allowing one to continue participating in the show as a condition of sentence; driving for over five hours to reunite Kim with her father and children; a hair/makeup/fashion makeover session; and field trips to the Bill Reid Art Gallery, Thompson Highway's play Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, and the Squamish Pow-wow.

As every documentary filmmaker knows, the camera itself is an intervention, and we see our choice as a simple acknowledgement of that fact.  In our previous documentary, Something to eat, a place to sleep & someone who gives a damn, it was the positive attention of the filmmakers and the camera that Gloria Wilson credits, in part, with changing her life.  Gloria is now on the other side of the camera, co-producing this documentary, and Gloria wants her street sisters to have the same opportunity that she had.

Always mindful of misappropriation of voice, and in order to ensure that the women's stories are authentic and truly autobiographical, they are invited to regularly view their footage.  We do this as, beyond veracity, we know that seeing oneself on screen can be transformational for these women.  Darlene credits seeing her footage with convincing her to sign into detox and treatment.

We see the camera as more participant than observer, allowing the audience to experience a far more realistic portrayal of the street sisters' lives and the culture of the Downtown Eastside.  In the end, the footage is neither voyeuristic nor sensational.  As we come to know the women as people, we are saddened but not shocked by the choices they make.  The audience comes to appreciate that addiction is tied directly to childhood sexual abuse and trauma, and that drugs and alcohol are the only effective means these women have thus far found to treat the pain they live with on a daily basis.

Unlike many documentaries on similar subject matter, we don't wish to focus only on where the subjects are currently situated.  Rather we want the women to tell their stories fully and completely, focusing equally on their past, present and future.  Kim, for example, is 33 years old and has been in the downtown eastside for 14 years.  However her life before the Downtown Eastside was very different: as a young person she was a spirit dancer and singer; she didn't have sex until she was 19 years old.  To portray her only as the addict/prostitute she has become would be a misrepresentation of her life, and reduce her to stereotype.   Once again, Street Sisters is about presenting these women exactly as they are, badly damaged, but also courageous, unique, valuable, interesting, insightful, intelligent, humourous and beautiful.