THUNDER BAY - Audiences across Canada have had their hearts and minds opened to the issue of homeless and poverty by a film touring from coast to coast.
Filmmakers hope audiences in Thunder Bay will have a similar reaction to seeing an intimate portrayal of homelessness and help to change the attitudes around an issue affecting people across Canada.
Us and Them, a film by writer and director, Krista Loughton, and award-winning filmmaker, Jennifer Abbott, will be screened tonight at the Finlandia Hall.
Krista Loughton, writer and director of the film, Us and Them. The film, shot over the course of 10 years, follows Loughton’s experience befriending four chronically homeless people, as well as Loughton’s own need to relieve pain in the world. Loughton said she initially expected to help the four individuals, but they ended up helping her.
“It really showed me what I was looking for in myself by trying to help other people,” Loughton said. “You see their intelligence, their humour, their wisdom, all of that just shines through in these four absolutely remarkable people who I became like family to while making this film.”
At the age of 18, Loughton visited the east African nation of Zimbabwe, where she witnessed extreme levels of poverty. She always wanted to return to the continent to help those affected by poverty, but was unable.
“Eventually I realized that I don’t have to go back to Africa to help people, I can just go downtown,” she said.
The film was a deeply moving and emotional journey, both for the audience and the filmmakers. Loughton said she was motivated to make the film because of her own personal and emotional issues, which really helped her open up.
“That comes up in the film,” she said. “As those come up, I guess it put up some barriers, but also opened up some doors too.”
According to Loughton, while homelessness is something people see every day, it is not something that receives the attention it deserves because she believes most people do not have all the facts.
“Predominately a lot of the people that are living in a homeless situation or poverty situations in this country are Indigenous people,” she said. “There is so much work to be done and unless people get behind it and change their attitude and recognize the systemic reasons behind this, I don’t think we are going to get through it.”
Loughton added that the attitude that everyone has the same opportunities and should simply be able to pull themselves up and out of a life of poverty is not a relevant way to think.
“It doesn’t work that way,” she said. “We are not all born into the same life situation and so we do have to look at that and we have to look at systemic reasons behind why this is happening.”
Us and Them is presented in partnership with the Copperfin Credit Union and the United Way of Thunder Bay. It will be screened at the Finlandia Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.uwaytbay.ca.
