FILM CHRONICLES TRAGIC FALL

Movie-Making Cops Document Woman's Sad Life

The tragic life of April Reoch, a 25-year-old drug addict and
prostitute whose body was found in a dumpster outside her East
Hastings hotel on Christmas day seven years ago, is the subject of a
documentary making its debut this fall.

"We followed her life and, as it turns out, her death," said Al
Arsenault, 54, a retired constable and president of the Odd Squad, a
documentary production team made up of cops-turned-filmmakers.

Tears for April: Beyond the Blue Lens is the story of Reoch's descent into
drug addiction. The film, which clocks in at just under 100 minutes, took 10
years to make.

Arsenault was a constable on the Downtown Eastside beat when he first
met 17-year-old Reoch -- a "fresh-faced, young kid" -- outside the
Metropole hotel in April 1993.

She came down from Squamish looking for a bit of fun, he
said.

"I told her she'll get mixed up in the drug scene, she'll end up
prostituting herself. I told her she might even die down there, and it
all came true," said Arsenault.

He saw her again six months later. She was hooked on drugs, with scabs
and sores on her face.

Arsenault took photos of Reoch and she became the "before and after
girl" in the 1999 documentary Through a Blue Lens.

The documentary, which profiled five other addicts, was used
extensively in drug-education programs across high schools in Canada.
It's the National Film Board's most successful documentary to date.

Tears for April, with experienced documentary-maker Ken Jubenvill at
the helm and Province copy editor Steve Berry as screenwriter,
revisits the cast of addicts.

The film camera followed Reoch, the central character, on the streets,
in and out of skid row hotels and into a garage where she was "living
like a rat among garbage."

It followed her to her first Narcotics Anonymous meeting and through
several unsuccessful attempts to get clean. It followed her to the
end, on Boxing Day in 2000, when Arsenault had to identify her
lifeless body in the morgue.

Recently, Arsenault and his crew went to Squamish to film Reoch's son,
now 16. They also filmed Ian Matheson Rowe, the man convicted for her
death, in jail.

Arsenault believes Reoch allowed the film crew unfettered access
because "she didn't want others to make the same mistakes she did."

The documentary will be screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival in
the fall. It has also been submitted to the Toronto and Vancouver Film
Festivals.

Arsenault hopes the film gets a wider release so April's story can be
shared with more people. "I was her friend," he said. "She did [the
police] a great service."