I've been a busy booger lately. Last night, however, I got to see my friend HUBERT DAVIS' new documentary Invisible City. Hubert's first feature-length doc was screened at HOT DOCS, and it won the Best Canadian Feature award at the festival.

Once, Mikey and Kendell's friends boasted they'd never get in trouble and never sell drugs, but by age 15 half of them have done just that. In this beautifully shot and intimate documentary, Oscar-nominated director Hubert Davis reaches beyond his own story-so eloquently captured in Hardwood-to follow two charismatic Regent Park boys as they make the transition from youth to manhood. Each runs into trouble with police, the courts, and school authorities despite having mothers whose love is palpable and Morgan's heroic attempt at mentoring. With none of the privileges of wealth and all of the prejudices of poverty, with absent fathers, a landscape of half-demolished buildings, vacant lots and systemic racism stacked against them, the boys struggle to turn their lives around.

It was a beautiful and quiet film surrounded by the impending destruction of the subjects' homes and community. I was so proud of Hubert for making this happen - he has been working on it since shortly after I met him in 2005. I can't imagine the determination it took to realize such a long project.

Last night was the final screening of the film but look out for it in the future. See the trailer HERE.

Labels: FILM

POSTED BY GRAYDON AT 5/11/2009 -

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