Bountiful is so pleased to have been nominated in two categories at the prestigious Yorkton Film Festival. Hold Your Fire, directed by Helen Slinger, was nominated in the documentary social/political category and Wasted, directed by Maureen Palmer was nominated in Science/Nature/Technology documentary. Big congratulations to all winners. We are in great company!
The jury has finally begun deliberations in the trial of the Toronto police officer charged with 2nd degree murder in the shooting of Sammy Yatim – the young man on the streetcar in the summer of 2013. This means that Hold Your Fire can finally be broadcast.
Even though it had been thoroughly lawyered with the trial in mind, CBC considered it too powerful to air during the trial. It’s been somewhat painful for us, waiting to get going on publicity for what we believe to be a useful addition to an important national conversation.
And we know it’s been difficult for the people inside the doc who so generously gave us their stories to then wait…and wait… The wait is over – Hold Your Fire will definitely be on the air this Thursday night January 21st @ 9 pm on CBC Firsthand. Now that the jury’s out, we can also show you the trailer. http://bit.ly/1QhEKhu
Jackie Christopher with a scrapbook documenting her son’s death in a police shooting
Paul Boyd on the right, with his father, nephew and sister
Michael MacIsaac with wife Marianne
Here’s the full article – Maureen and Mike interviewed by the Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/life/619391/wasted-flawed-treatment-system-leads-alcoholic-therapist-seek-better-options-addiction
Maureen, Mike and Dr. Evan Wood were on CBC’s The Current to discuss Mike’s relapse … and the new medications that helped him recover. Listen here: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/player.html?p=a&autoPlay=true&mediaIds=2682235729
Maureen Palmer and Mike Pond
I can honestly say I never saw it coming and I never thought I’d have to deal with it. In our first round of filming, the experts told us alcohol use disorder is a chronic relapsing condition and yet it never occurred to me it would happen to Mike. How smug of me.
The night that Mike drank, I panicked. Mike’s disorder had been so severe before, I feared we were heading in that direction again. Then I had to step out of my “concerned partner brain,” to put on my filmmaker’s hat and think about how to tell this part of the story, from his perspective. And mine. The viewer would be curious what my reaction would be. So, Mike and I turned on our iPhones and began to interview each other about the relapse. You’ll see part of the conversation in the film. I’m resplendent in my ancient fuzzy blue housecoat.
That night, I didn’t know whether that material would ever make it to air. But in documentary filmmaking, when something happens you need to get it on camera, then decide later what to do with it. If I didn’t roll on the relapse, the heightened anxiety and uncertainty of that moment would be lost.
Mike’s relapse upped the stakes for our film. It made our search for new treatment options very personal and urgent, because in the past the go-to treatment, AA and the 12 steps, didn’t work for Mike. The biggest challenge for me during this time, was allowing Mike his autonomy to manage his disorder. Experts like Dr. Bill Miller and Dr. Keith Humphreys, whom you’ll meet in the film, told us they were humbled by the wisdom of their clients. Wisdom that’s too often written off, as in “Oh he’s such a drunk he can’t make a decision to save his life.” This is Mike’s life we are talking about. Like any other life-threatening illness or disorder, surely the patient must have a voice?
Tune in to the Nature of Things Thursday January 21st, to see the choices Mike made and how it all turned out.
So sorry to announce that Hold Your Fire has been delayed again. Final arguments were right on schedule in the trial of James Forcillo, the Toronto Police officer accused of 2nd degree murder in the 2013 shooting of Sammy Yatim. The jury was scheduled to begin deliberating early next week but the judge is ill and has postponed his charge to the jury. We can’t broadcast until the jury begins deliberating. So we’re once again sorry to be disappointing people who’d planned to watch…especially the people we filmed for the documentary. we’ll keep you posted. Sounds like mid-February now for CBC Firsthand broadcast
Don’t miss Bountiful’s next film, Wasted, Thursday January 21st, 8pm, on CBC’s The Nature of Things. The premise: Maureen follows psychotherapist Mike Pond, a recovered alcoholic 5 years sober and Maureen’s partner, as he searches for the best new evidence-based treatments for addiction. At least that was the premise. Shortly after filming began, Mike drank again, which made the search for new treatment options very personal and urgent, because in the past the go-to treatment -AA and the 12 steps-didn’t work for him. He needed something else. “After the relapse Sue Dando, The Nature of Things executive producer, urged me to get in front of the camera, because how I dealt with the relapse became an essential part of the film,” says Maureen. “I’m the director and a character in my own film. I’ve never felt more conflicted in my life. The storyteller in me knew the relapse made for a much more compelling film. Yet the more we came to understand what causes addiction, the more we realized continuing to film actually made Mike’s condition worse. How does it all turn out? Tune in on the 21st to find out!
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 course it was also thoroughly “lawyered” so we felt confident it was “good to go”. But CBC was concerned that, as careful as we’d been, the doc was too powerful to risk the chance of jury members viewing it, against the judge’s instructions to ignore all media. CBC didn’t want to take any chances that we’d cause a mistrial.
Since closing arguments in the trial began today, and the jury is expected to begin deliberating late this week or early next, we are back in the broadcast schedule. Hopefully the trial stays on schedule and the doc gets on the air this time around. It’s a bit anxiety-inducing for all of us involved in the production but it’s quite dreadful for affected families who have to wait again to witness their loved one’s story unfold on camera.
Here is the link to the CBC’s page for Hold Your Fire: http://www.cbc.ca/firsthand/episodes/hold-your-fire
Tune in January 14th, 9pm to CBC TV’s Firsthand.
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 statistics on how many police interactions with people in crisis ended badly! Police in every province keep records differently – and view sharing them differently too!
Simon Fraser University’s Dr. Rick Parent calls the lack of national stats on police shootings of people in crisis a “sad lack of government caring.” He looked at BC inquests for 2000-2009 to come up with a number: 30 shootings = 30% of police shootings over that time period were of people exhibiting “irrational behaviours.”
But we needed a national number, and one that’s more up-to-date. Most importantly, we wanted to see if the problem is getting better or worse.
Enter the amazing Yvette Brend. Yvette is Chief Researcher at Bountiful Films and she took on the painstaking task of acquiring and reviewing inquest records from across Canada for 2004 – 2014. She found the number per capita of police shootings of people in mental crisis is going up. Her most conservative estimate is that it stands now at about 40%.
We say “about” and “conservative” because not all inquest records had detail about state of mind and also because of the variance in how different provinces keep statistics. For instance, in populous Ontario, if the Special Investigations Unit takes on a case, it doesn’t provide public information on state of mind.
So we’re quite sure the national number is much greater. And you’ll get another perspective on just how conservative Yvette was in her calculations if you read Travis Lupick’s terrific piece in The Georgia Straight. He looked at BC inquest records over five years and included addiction issues. Then the number goes up to 90%!