DRUG DEALER SAYS VIDEO PART OF 'REALITY MOVIE'

Drug dealer Anthony "Tony" Terezakis says videos showing him
apparently assaulting people were just part of a "reality movie" he
was shooting to depict the "pain and suffering" of Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside.

Terezakis has pleaded guilty to trafficking in cocaine and heroin but
not guilty to assault, assault causing bodily harm and unlawful confinement.

A B.C. Supreme Court jury has viewed 12 hours of video seized by
police. Prosecutors say it shows Terezakis terrorizing and beating up
drug addicts and street people at two eastside hotels.

The Crown has called no witnesses in the trial, saying that the
videos speak for themselves.

Terezakis testified he made the "movie" because he knew that police
were closing in on him and about to make an arrest.

"So I decided to make this movie about myself and the realities of
this house of pain, this block of pain that was occurring -- all the
drug addicts and how they live, everything," he told the jury.

He said he made the movie after spending 40 days in jail on marijuana
trafficking charges in early 2003 and feeling a "growing
spirituality" while reading the Bible.

Then he saw and was inspired by the film Jackass, a movie of
outrageous stunts and gags.

He told the jury that the people who became involved in his film were
paid in drugs or food and that many of the scenes were
"choreographed" -- but some were just done on the spur of the moment.

Terezakis's testimony is expected to continue tomorrow.