Synopsis

After five years of homelessness and drug addiction, co-producer Gloria Wilson knows how difficult it is to get off the streets. Gloria is one of the lucky ones. She now has her own place, the support of her family, and she is progressing well in a methadone maintenance program. But she knows that to keep what she has, she has to give back.

Gloria wants to help nine of her street sisters, women she loves and wants a better life for. They are her relatives, her friends, and women Gloria has been incarcerated with. They are the Street Sisters.

Nine aboriginal women have agreed to tell their stories, without restriction, to a television audience. For most of the women, this project will be a legacy they can leave their children. They don't want their children to end up where they have, and they want their children's understanding and forgiveness.

While this film focuses on women in the midst of poverty, addiction and homelessness, it will consistently invert stereotypes, revealing these women to be exactly as they are: terribly wounded, in the fierce grip of addiction, but also courageous, unique, valuable, interesting, insightful, intelligent, humourous and resilient.

For one full year, the series will follow the Sisters as they participate in a twice-weekly Aboriginal Women's Support Group, and as they do all that they can outside the group to survive, change, get clean and sober, and hopefully move on to a much better life.

The filmmakers will provide these women with all the resources they possibly can in order to help them better their lives, including one-on-one counseling, legal assistance, advocacy for shelter, transportation where necessary, and regular experiences beyond the current norm of their day-to-day lives.  As such, the series presents a fascinating social experiment and whether characters like the Sisters, given their dire circumstances, with all the help we can offer, can indeed climb out of what one of them has called “the abyss.” In watching the six-part series, a television audience will be provided with a clear answer to that absorbing question.

Elder for the group is Marjorie White, a residential school survivor and highly respected executive with numerous community organizations.  Facilitators are Trauma Counsellor/Outreach Worker, Sylvia Isaacs, who was herself drug addicted and homeless in the Downtown Eastside a dozen years ago, and internationally renowned author and addictions specialist, Dr. Gabor Mate.  Guests will include actress Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves) and Chief of the Heiltsuk nation, Marilyn Slett.

Each of the Sisters has identified clear goals they hope to accomplish over the course of production.  All of the women want to get clean and sober, leave the Downtown Eastside, and enjoy a stable lifestyle.  Kim, Darlene and Sophia want to return to their reservations and raise their kids.  Janet intends to pursue a career as an aboriginal chef and ensure that her children don't end up in the Downtown Eastside.  At 51, Rosa wants to return to school and become a LifeSkills counselor, working with young women in the Downtown Eastside.

Some of the sisters' goals have already been realized.  Sonia wished to find her son whom she hadn't seen in over 11 years, since he was 13 years old.  She has recently reunited with him and both say the experience has changed their lives.  Melinda also wanted to reconnect with a young daughter she lost contact with seven years ago, and she has recently reconnected with her via email.  Since filming began, Kim, Sarah and Darlene have entered treatment programs for their addictions and Kim and Sarah remain; Sophia and Sandra are on waiting lists to get into treatment, and all of the women remain committed to getting clean and sober.

The Sisters have granted us truly extraordinary access, and the series will present all aspects of their lives outside the group, including their use and abuse of drugs and alcohol, treatment, counseling, relationships (spouses, exes, boyfriends, family and friends), housing, welfare, criminal activities (drug dealing, prostitution), education, training and employment, and their interaction with the criminal justice system (police, bail, probation, and court).

Exploring the women's aboriginal heritage, expanding their cultural awareness is also an important part of the Street Sisters project, and so the group will discuss books by aboriginal authors, watch films by aboriginal filmmakers, attend plays by aboriginal playwrights and meet aboriginal artists.  Two already accomplished examples are attending a production of Thompson Highway's Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, where Tantoo Cardinal was a cast member, and a personal tour of the Bill Reid Gallery given by his widow, Dr. Martine Reid.

As a documentary series, Street Sisters offers content never quite seen before on television.  Never before have characters like the Sisters been given this degree of exposure, over anything like this amount of time.  There will be no hiding.  A television audience will see definitively whether the Street Sisters can meet the incredible challenge of changing their highly dislocated lives.