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Streets of Plenty - a review
March 26, 2010
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A youth worker friend of mine told me about this documentary "Streets of Plenty" by Misha Kleider and Cory Ogilvie. It chronicles the journey of Misha, a student that decides to give up everything and live on the streets for one month in December.
In my opinion, the documentary and Misha Kleider present an overly simplistic view of the Downtown Eastside and being homeless. At the start of this film he feels most homeless are just scamming the system because they are too lazy to work. As movie goes along and he experiences more of the streets and gets more rundown, he comes to a different opinion of homeless people and the streets in general.
The movie does bring up some thought provoking points and was approached and filmed in an interesting way. It's worth a look as it does provoke dialogue especially since Misha makes some very poor choices.
Be forewarned, Misha does try hard drugs in this movie and it was a very silly and irresponsible thing to do. Also there is a lot of swearing and other actions you may find offensive.
Click here to view the film.
Comments
Provoke thought...isn't that
Submitted by Billly (not verified) on August 2, 2010 - 18:22.
Provoke thought...isn't that what a documentary is supposed to do? Misha doesn't provide and never offered solutions to the downtown eastside problems but it is through means of insight like this that the community can work towards putting a real end to the plague of extreme poverty and substance abuse in this area of Vancouver.
I'm very glad I watched this video and I commend Mr. Kleider and Mr. Ogivile for their dedicated and borderless first person investigation and subsequent reporting. As "irresponsible" as it may have been, Misha is the only person I've seen providing an unbiased first person insiders report on the experience of hard drug use and how it is affecting the residents of the Eastside. This is a new perspective, not one of a recovering addict, a police officer, a politician, an aid worker, or anybody else with special interests in policies governing the area, but of an ordinary Vancouverite keen on exposing the hidden secrets of his poisoned society.
Excellent work. I hope this video will ultimately make a difference for the better in reducing drug use and poverty everywhere.