Monthly Archives: September 2015

It’s Paul Boyd’s birthday today. He’d be 48 if he hadn’t been killed in a police shooting in 2007. Since his college years, Paul had suffered from a mental illness most easily described as bipolar disorder. But he still managed to get himself educated and find meaningful work as one of Vancouver’s top animators. Paul

When we first started researching Hold Your Fire, we spent a long time looking for answers in statistics – trying to figure out if the increase in police shootings of people in crisis is simply because there are so many interactions. We ended up concluding that the question we really had to look at is

Three families are featured in Hold Your Fire and it is impossible to describe the depth of their sorrow. Losing a loved one suddenly is terrible for anyone. Losing them violently is worse yet. And losing them violently at the hands of someone you trusted is profoundly sad and difficult to comprehend. Michael MacIsaac’s widow,

We began actively researching a documentary about policing and people with mental health problems about 2 ½ years ago, shortly after Sammy Yatim was killed by police on a streetcar in downtown Toronto. I say “actively” researching because my Bountiful Films partner, Maureen Palmer, and I (Helen Slinger) have been exploring this topic for many