Introduced by Director Hugh Gibson and Cinematographer Cam Woykin
“One of the best documentaries of the year, The Stairs, directed by Toronto-based filmmaker Hugh Gibson, is a profoundly empathetic look at three drug addicts cooperating with a harm reduction program at Toronto’s Regent Park Community Health Centre. Gibson follows these characters over the course of five years, and first and foremost lets the viewer get to know them as people rather than “users” — the film only shows them taking drugs long after we’ve grown to care for their personalities. One can sense the deep sense of trust between filmmaker and subject here, and how it organically emerged over time.
Refreshingly devoid of the sort of drug porn you might find in lesser films, The Stairs has an intelligence and humanism reminiscent of Allan King, paying attention to people, their behaviour and self-articulation, without trying to fit the material into some convenient message-driven box.” – Adam Cook, Filmmaker
*Best Canadian Film 2016* / Toronto Film Critics Association
“One of the Year’s Best Docs.”
-The Globe and Mail and NOW Magazine
*Jury Prize Winner / Montreal’s RIDM Festival & Audience Award at Toronto’s Regent Park Film Festival.
Hugh Gibson | DIRECTOR
A graduate of York University (BFA: Film), Gibson participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus (’05), Toronto International Film Festival’s Talent Lab (’06) and TIFF STUDIO (’12). Selected credits include writing/directing the acclaimed short drama, Hogtown Blues (’04: TIFF, Bilbao: Audience Award), and producing short doc A Tomb with a View (’14: TIFF, VIFF). He produced A Place Called Los Pereyra (’09, IDFA, RIDM, BAFICI), which screened extensively in Latin America and Canada.
CAM WOYKIN | CAMERA
Born in Calgary, graduate of University of Lethbridge, and York University (MFA: film production). Cam’s films, installations, and photography have been exhibited at festivals (including TIFF), galleries, and alternative spaces across Canada and internationally. He formerly worked at the Winnipeg Film Group and maintains an active practice as a media arts instructor, encouraging experimental and hybrid approaches to narrative filmmaking. He previously taught at OCAD, and currently teaches film and video production at the University of New Brunswick.
Community Talkback Panel / 4:30 – 5:15 pm Sunday, December Cinematheque, 100 Arthur Street Free Admission
Following the final screening of The Stairs on Sunday, December 3 at 4:30 pm at Cinematheque there will be short panel on health care and street advocacy with the director and other Winnipeg health care and street outreach professionals. Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. Harm Reduction is also a movement for social justice built on a belief in, and respect for, the rights of people who use drugs.
Panelists:
Moderator:
Terry MacLeod is an independent Emmy-nominated journalist. In his 23 years with CBC Winnipeg (and his 33 years with CBC nationally) he established himself as
a well respected, informed journalist. He retired from CBC on Dec 31, 2016. With CBC Winnipeg he was a host on Information Radio and host/producer of The Weekend Morning Show. He has been a producer/guest-host on CBC’s hit show Morningside with Peter Gzowski where he was also Stuart McLean’s producer and was a regular guest on CBC TV’s Midday.
Rick Lees is the Executive Director of the MAIN STREET PROJECT and has served in a number of diverse community-health leadership positions for over 25 years. He is a strong community health advocate for marginalized populations. Rick has extensive experience. Rick is in his 4th year as a Board Director with Nine Circles Health Centre.
Shelley Marshall is a nurse that has been working in community health in Winnipeg’s core area since the 1990s. She currently works in harm reduction and overdose programming and policy in Winnipeg with Population and Public Health, with the Province of Manitoba as the Provincial Overdose Coordinator, and nationally as a member of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition Steering Committee.
David Carriere has been a Community Outreach Worker with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Street Connections program for the last 25+ years. Their clients include Sex Trade Workers, solvent users, intravenous drug users, crack/meth users and street involved individuals. They take a harm reduction approach in assisting clients. Throughout their client’s lives, poverty and homelessness show themselves as reoccurring themes.
Hugh Gibson | Director
A graduate of York University (BFA: Film), Gibson participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus (’05), Toronto International Film Festival’s Talent Lab (’06) and TIFF STUDIO (’12). Selected credits include writing/directing the acclaimed short drama, Hogtown Blues (’04: TIFF, Bilbao: Audience Award), and producing short doc A Tomb with a View (’14: TIFF, VIFF). He produced A Place Called Los Pereyra (’09, IDFA, RIDM, BAFICI), which screened extensively in Latin America and Canada.
