>>REVIEW
IN THE GUTTER AND OTHER GOOD PLACES
Arusha Action Film Series
DIRECTED BY Cristine Richey
Wednesday, February 21
The Plaza
If you live in Calgary’s inner city it’s commonplace to hear the sound of shopping carts clanging through back alleys. You have to be careful when swinging a bag of garbage into the dumpster because there might be a bottle picker already in there searching for recyclables. It’s easy to feel guilty and to feel pity for the bottle pickers but, ultimately, most of the time you just want to look away and pretend that people in Calgary don’t actually have to search through trash to survive. Frankly, it’s obscene in a city that is so unbelievably affluent that some of our citizens have no other options.
It’s easy in a city so rich for people on the bottom to be dehumanized and reviled. That’s why the upcoming Arusha Centre’s action film In the Gutter and Other Good Places by filmmaker Cristine Richey is so important. Although the documentary, which chronicles the lives of three Calgary bottle pickers, was filmed in 1993, it remains just as relevant, if not more so, today. Affordable housing is nonexistent and Calgary now has a homeless population that’s the size of a small town — almost 3,500 people.
Richey follows Colin, Jean and Ron for months and we learn painfully intimate details of their lives and why they ended up on the street. Colin’s mother was schizophrenic and committed suicide when he was 23. Ron, who was a successful oil and gas geologist, became an alcoholic and lost his wife, children and livelihood. Jean has a grade four education and doesn’t have a hell of a lot of other options to survive. The documentary is heartbreaking because Richey was given such access to their lives, and it’s a powerful condemnation of the constrast between the prosperity of Calgary and the poverty of the dumpster divers. Although the men’s lives are tragic, they still maintain their dignity and are often defiant at the way they are regarded by society. They all point out they’re working for a living and self-sufficient so why should they be looked down upon. The documentary humanizes a marginalized subculture and makes it obvious that it’s North American society that should be considered revolting for treating some members like they’re disposable.
The Arusha Centre has organized a phone link-up with The Partnership to End Homelessness in Chicago and the New York City Department of Homeless Services after the documentary airs to discuss how the two cities are dealing with their homeless problems. There’s no doubt Calgary needs some inspiration. |
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