TOUGH, BUT TRUE, FILMS LOOK AT DRUG USE

Tears For April Will Be Shown Friday At Port Moody Film Festival

The plight of hardcore drug addicts living in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside is something many of us either don't see or choose to ignore.

However, a group of Vancouver police officers want to show people --
youths especially -- what they're missing.

In 1998, seven officers who patrolled the Downtown Eastside got
together with the goal of making a strong, reality-based educational
video for students.

"We kind of got frustrated dealing with the tail end of everything on
our beat," says Sgt. Toby Hinton, the current president of Odd Squad
Productions Society. "The goal was to try and take some of our
sordid, miserable world and put it back into the classroom for an
educational benefit and help kids make positive choices about drug use."

The team's first video, called Through a Blue Lens, chronicled the
lives of six drug addicts scratching out an existence in the Downtown
Eastside. The video was produced by the National Film Board and is
the most successful video since the board's inception in 1939.

"I think that the end message comes across in the film, without being
pedantic, as: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Hinton says.

The film humanizes the addicts, but it also portrays the police
officers as caring and compassionate people.

Tears for April: Beyond the Blue Lens, their latest feature film, is
the culmination of 10 years spent -- on and off duty -- following the
lives of the six addicts introduced in Through a Blue Lens, with
April Reoch as the main subject.

"She was, I guess, the poster girl for Through a Blue Lens," says
Hinton, who was the executive producer of Tears for April.

Sgt. Al Arsenault, a co-director of the film, first snapped April's
picture shortly after she arrived on the Downtown Eastside at age 17.
Six months later, he took another picture that showed how much her
looks and health had deteriorated.

April became addicted to cocaine and heroin and was forced to abandon
her son because of her addiction. April was found murdered on Dec.
25, 2000. Her roommate, Ian Matheson Rowe, is serving 10 years
without parole for her death.

Nicola Keate, Randy Miller, Carlee Gadbois (a former Coquitlam
resident), and to lesser degrees Curtis Carey and Darlene Rowley are
also featured in the film.

Out of six addicts, two (April and Carlee) are dead, three are still
struggling with their addictions and one (Randy) has turned his life around.

"The success ratio is what one would expect -- it's not that good. I
wish I could say I see more success stories on the beat in the
Downtown Eastside, but it's a tough world to pull yourself out of
when you're there," says Hinton, a former Port Moody resident who has
been policing the Downtown Eastside for 18 years.

The 95-minute feature also offers a behind-the-scenes look at
street-level policing through the eyes of Arsenault, who retired from
the VPD after 27 years of service in May 2006.

"I've learned that the human spirit has an amazing resilience, and
that underneath the scabs, sores and dirt, may lie decent people who
have made some poor choices regarding drug use," Arsenault says in an
e-mail. He is currently in Thailand writing a book.

"These people are not throwaways -- they are someone's children whose
potential is worth salvaging against all odds."

Arsenault says the single most redeeming quality that most addicts
share is the desire to prevent anyone else, especially kids, from
following in their footsteps. It's something the Odd Squad is also
trying to prevent.

Arsenault is currently working on turning Tears for April into a
classroom-ready package.

Hinton says the feedback about Tears for April has been good, but he
warns that it's a "heavy" film.

"I think that it is a good insight into a world that a people do not
necessarily get to see or want to avoid, but it is in our backyard,"
Hinton says.

"You can try and normalize this stuff or, you know, try and minimize
the devastation that drug addiction causes, but bottom line is it's
ugly and that's what we see day in and day out when we're policing."
Echoes Arsenault: "This film is reality-based footage at its finest.
We were able to form strong bonds with the people we filmed and we
were able to capture the essence of life and death in the Skids, our
foot beat."

Next up is getting a broadcast licence to show Tears for April on
television, and work on three films. The first film is an educational
documentary on gangs, gang culture and the gun problem. The second,
titled Zero Avenue, will focus on the burgeoning B.C. bud business
and cross-border drug smuggling. A third will profile VPD hostage
negotiator Const. Linda Stewart and is tentatively called Crisis Queen.

"When I hang up my gun belt and retire, probably my best
accomplishments are going to be these film projects that we were
involved with," Hinton says.

- - Tears for April: Beyond the Blue Lens will be shown at the Port
Moody Canadian Film Festival Friday at 9:30 p.m., following a short feature.

Tickets are available during festival show times, 6 to 10 p.m., at
the Inlet Theatre (100 Newport Dr.). Cost is $5 per film with the
purchase of a $5 membership.