Through a Blue Lens

Through a Blue Lens (1999) is a documentary film shot in Vancouver's downtown east side.
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada
Directed by Veronica Alice Mannix
Producer: Gillian Darling Kovanic
Director of Photography: Daniel C. Mannix
Editor: Shelly Hamer
52 minutes

Production

Through a Blue Lens was produced by the National Film Board of Canada and was directed by Veronica Mannix. The film follows interactions between police officers and drug addicts and documents the extreme poverty and suffering many addicts endure.

Description

This award-winning documentary film, shot in Vancouver, Canada’s notorious downtown east side, caught the eyes of audiences, film makers and critics world wide for its unusual and sensitive depiction of life on the street.

The film is the second of two from the Mannix & Mannix team about social problems in the poorest part of Canada's third largest city. The previous film, Down Here, was ostensibly about social activist Bud Osborn and his attempts to secure better living conditions for the residents, many of whom were street people, in Vancouver. It was in the making of Down Here that the Mannix's met the Vanouver police officers who were, themselves, documenting the lives of drug addicts on the streets.

Through A Blue Lens documents almost two years of life and death on the street and behind tenement walls. The striking thing about the film is not the horror of drug abuse but the story of how the interaction between the police and the drug addicts, with the camera as a catalyst, actually changed the people in front of the camera. The cops became more sympathetic to the people on the street and the drug addicts, in having friendship extended to them by the police and film makers, developed self esteem and, in some cases, actually cleaned up.

This documentary was made during the height of the then unpublished scandal of the missing women in downtown Vancouver. At least one of the women who appears on camera was later identified as one of the victims.

Awards

Japan Prize (2000)(Tokyo) Category: Adult Education winner & Overall winner all categories
Chris Award (2000)(Columbus, Ohio) Category: Social Issues
Reel to Real International Film Festival (2000)(Vancouver): Award for Most Inspirational Short film or Video - given by the Youth Jury

Related Film

Flipping the World - Drugs Through a Blue Lens (2000) (30 min)
Directed by Moira Simpson
Produced for the NFB by Gillian Darling Kovanic & George Johnson

External links

• National Film Board web site: http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=33864&v=h&lg=en&exp=3959
• Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0226525/
• NY Times article: http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=259319
• Vancouver Police Odd Squad: http://www.oddsquad.com/