Posts Categorized: The Blog

This is the documentary that was originally scheduled for broadcast in October…the day before, CBC decided to pull it because of the ongoing trial in Toronto of the officer charged in the shooting death of Sammy Yatim. Hold Your Fire was made with the understanding that its broadcast might well coincide with the trial. Of

For more information on the documentary, visit CBC FIRSTHAND.  

When we started research for Hold Your Fire, we looked for statistics. We found it easy to enough to find out how many interactions there are between police and people in mental crisis in Canada’s major cities – police forces in Toronto and Vancouver were forthcoming with those statistics. But just try to find national

    Those of us who have the privilege of making documentaries spend months and years involved with the people whose stories we’re telling. As well as an honour, it is something of a joyful burden. We want to get it right – the facts and the emotional reality. Like any big project, it comes

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