In Focus - The dark and light of 2006

For years, both Amy and daughter Natasha have been turning tricks on the mean streets to pay for a habits that are killing them.

At 42, but looking much older, Amy parts her ragged hair to reveal her latest wounds, nine staples on the top of her scalp and five stitches on her forehead. Two days before Christmas, she was thrown through her living room window. She doesn’t remember anything until emergency responders started cutting her hair because her head was frozen to the sidewalk.

Just another day, another brush with death in North Central Regina.

Some films just never get enough attention.

That is true of Under the Skin: Drugs, Dreams and Demons. This gritty documentary by Regina’s Four Square Productions uncovers the seedy underbelly of one of the most crime-infested neighbourhoods in the entire country through the eyes of a mother, her daughter and a dealer.

Not for the faint of heart, the film shows vicious beatings, drug use and visceral descriptions of violence and shattered lives against a backdrop that can only be described as third-world squalor.

The crudeness of a lot of the footage, which is shaky, dark and grainy, just adds to the impact. It is not clear if this is a deliberate technique, a logistical issue or serendipitous, but it enhances the dim reality of addiction, prostitution, crime and violence.

Frenetic editing and judiciously used music also serves to keep the viewer on the edge of anxiety.

And, while the movie does include academic segments that touch on statistics, sociology and psychology, these do not detract from the cinéma vérité pulse of what is overall a very impactful documentary that shines a light on the human face of the drastic consequences of the cycle of poverty.

While Under the Skin did receive some distribution in 2006, including screenings on SCN and CBC, and accolades including the Yorkton Film Festival Best of Saskatchewan Golden Sheaf, it really deserves a broad audience even ten years later.

On a lighter note

Also gracing screens at the 2006 festival and winning in the Best Comedy was a 10-minute part live action, part animated short  directed by Mark Cutforth that is really worth looking up.

Winston Lo (played by Benny Min) is a Chinese-Canadian actor who cannot get any good roles until his caucasion friend Foster (Michael Dufays) teaches him how to act Chinese.

The humourous premise is realized with clever satire that includes exagerated stereotypical martial arts fighting and out-of-sync voice dubbing.

And the animation was good with a kind of anime-meets-the Amazing Spiderman feel to it.

I chuckled out loud. Definitely worth 10 minutes of my life.