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Jan. 27, 2006
Toughing it out on the street
Quebec youth become the focus of Jewish filmmaker's latest project.
KATHARINE HAMER EDITOR
Of the many homeless youth living rough on the streets of Vancouver,
almost a quarter are from Quebec. As Francophones in a largely English-speaking
world, these teens have an even tougher time getting support than
their peers. That's where La Boussole comes in.
The social services agency with a small office on East Broadway
offers many resources to Francophone street kids: it gives them
a place to check in, to look for work and to talk to outreach workers
about some of their problems.
"They're an amazing organization who have way too much to deal
with considering their meagre resources," said Ilan Saragosti,
director of the documentary Exiles in Lotusland (its French
title is Le Méchant Trip).
It was from a La Boussole research study on Francophone street youth
that Saragosti got the idea for his film. The former Vancouverite,
now based in Toronto, has several other films to his credit, including
the highly popular A Match Made in Seven, set in the world
of Jewish speed-dating.
While Exiles in Lotusland has a number of secondary characters,
its focus is the story of a young couple, Dany (aka Ti-Criss) and
Mélissa (known as Mélo) who, having escaped the long
arm of social services agencies back home, are living out of a cardboard
box in downtown Vancouver.
Saragosti, who having been raised in Montreal speaks fluent French,
met Ti-Criss and Mélo on the street, after he'd successfully
pitched the project to the National Film Board. "Most of the
Quebecois street youth can be found downtown on Granville Street
and in the West End," he told the Independent in a recent
interview. "They have a real yearning to be heard, to express
their views to the world and to speak French, especially with an
adult who's willing to listen and treat them with respect."
Initially the film was intended to be about Quebec street youth
in general, but Saragosti "took to Ti-Criss and Mélo's
story to such an extent that it became a real narrative instead."
Keeping in touch with the couple was perhaps the hardest part of
the project, especially as they criss-crossed the country more than
once during filming, as well as relocating to the Okanagan.
"Their story kept evolving and becoming more interesting,"
said Saragosti, "so I had no choice but to keep shooting. But
I was living in Toronto, so I had to rely on other people –
Dominique [Boivin, an outreach worker from La Boussole], Mélo's
mother, Ti-Criss's social worker in Quebec, my assistant director
in Vancouver – to help me track them down. As Mélo and
Ti-Criss settled down a bit more, they got pretty good at staying
in touch with me on their own. In fact, by the end they were calling
me to suggest when I should fly down and shoot."
It's hard not to be drawn into the pair's tale as they struggle
valiantly to cope with the hardship of life on the street. Somehow
their enormous affection for each other and for their dogs keeps
them going, despite relapses into drug addiction and occasional
periods of separation.
Christine Sotteau, executive director of La Boussole, describes
Exiles as "a touching but very hard-hitting love story,
an intimate portrait of homeless kids and their painful past."
Exiles, featuring music by two other former Vancouver community
members, Avrum Nadigel and Jonathan Lander, is one of several Saragosti
films dealing with societal outsiders.
"I suppose my interest in marginality comes from my background,"
said Saragosti, "partly due to family dynamics, partly due
to being Jewish and being marginalized within the Jewish community
itself. I was born in Israel, my father is from Tunisia and we were
mostly in an Ashkenazi community. My brother and I hardly had any
connection with the Jewish community until a couple of years before
our bar mitzvahs and then our parents threw us in headfirst. So
we felt like outsiders and I don't think that feeling has gone away."
Exiles in Lotusland received the Borsos Award for best new
Canadian feature at last year's Whistler Film Festival. It will
be screened at 7 and 9:15 p.m. at the Vancity Theatre on Feb. 7
as a fund-raiser for La Boussole. Tickets are $10. The film will
also air on the Documentary Channel this year.
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