LISA'S STORY OF ADDICTION, PROSTITUTION TO BE RECOUNTED TO MILLIONS
ON OPRAH

Toronto Woman In Canadian Documentary Cracked Not Broken

A documentary about a Toronto woman who sold her body to support her
crack addiction -- despite a "good" family and an elite education --
will gain an audience of 10 million when it is featured today on the
Oprah Winfrey Show.

Cracked Not Broken is the story of Lisa, now 38, who grew up in
Toronto's tony Rosedale neighbourhood and attended the private Bishop
Strachan School. Despite some alcohol and cocaine abuse, she attended
university and although she never graduated, the intelligent young
woman held down jobs at ScotiaMcLeod investments and managing a
Yorkville restaurant.

Then, in her late-20s, Lisa tried crack for the first time.

"It just grabbed a hold of her from the first time she tried it, and
her life sort of spiralled from there," says producer Tom Powers.
Lisa was forced to give her mother custody of her daughter, now five,
as she turned to the streets to support her habit.

The documentary, a joint production of Open Door and
blatantexposure.film, is directed by Paul Perrier and offers a real-
time glimpse into Lisa's life as an addict and prostitute, with most
of the footage shot during a single take in a downtown Toronto hotel.

Clips from the film and an interview with Lisa open today's Oprah
episode, Inside the Lives of Young Prostitutes, which was taped in
Chicago on Thursday. Lisa was flown in from southern California,
where she has been in treatment at the AA&E Retreat rehab centre for
the last few weeks.

In therapist's terms, Lisa is a "habitual relapser" who cycles on and
off the streets. However, the production team on the documentary is
now intimately involved in her life -- financing the film and some of
Lisa's treatment out of their own pockets -- and hopeful she will
find her way out of the woods.

Mr. Perrier's wife, Nicol Kalman, was a friend of Lisa's in their
high school days at Bishop Strachan. One day when Lisa was in a sober
period, she visited the couple and Mr. Perrier asked her opinion on
some footage he had shot for another documentary about a crack
addict. Lisa was impressed and told him that if she ever went back
out on the streets, she would call him to turn his lens on her life.

The call came on a Friday afternoon in February 2004. Mr. Perrier had
little intention of making a film about Lisa, but he took his camera
and met her at a hotel, where she was awaiting the Bay Street
clientele who financed the drugs she poured into her damaged veins.

"It's really powerful footage," Mr. Powers says. "At the end of the
day, the message of the movie is this can happen to anyone, and quite
frankly, it's happening more in well-to-do families than anyone
realizes."

The film was first screened at the Toronto's Regent Theatre in
September. It has been shown in that venue a handful of times since,
but the most receptive audiences have been the 3,500 students and
parents who have viewed the film in Toronto private schools. Ottawa's
Ashbury College recently contacted Mr. Powers about showing the
documentary this fall.

He says the film was not intended for a private school audience, but
after several administrators attended the first screening at the
Regent, calls started to come in from various schools. When Lisa was
not in treatment, she attended the screenings and spoke after the film.

"It was very powerful to have her walk off the screen, essentially,
and start taking questions about what these kids have just seen,"
says Mr. Powers.

Cracked Not Broken will get its U.S. premiere at the San Francisco
Documentary Film Festival later this month and has broadcast deals
for Britain and Israel, but right now, DVD sales from the website
crackednotbroken.com is the only means of distribution.