“For Our Street Family” gives voice to the experiences and strength of a group of First Nation youth in Prince Rupert, British Columbia by focusing on their stories of racism, poverty, abuse, and the foster care system. Begun as a collaborative photography project that became a revealing group self-portrait, the film expands to capture the youths’ difficult challenges, resilient spirit, playfulness, and why they are a “street family.”
Revolving around their teen drop in center, Planet Youth, these are the youth’s stories that reveal the ambivalence of identity, the pain of stereotypes, and the important support of peers through this participatory photography and film endeavor. It provides the opportunity to listen and finally see a group usually labeled or ignored by the public and so often parented by bureaucracy.
The DVD is available through Documentary Educational Resources
SCREENINGS
Ethnographic Film Unit & First Nations House of Learning, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2008
Green College “Inside Look” Documentary series, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2008
Champions for Children and Youth Summit, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2008
University of British Columbia Ethnographic Film Festival, Canada, 2009
Canadian Anthropology Socieity Film Festival, Canada, 2009
Student Award, AAA/Society for Visual Anthropology Film, Video & Multimedia Festival, 2009
Festival of Visual Culture, Finland, 2009
International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade, Serbia, 2009
Nordic Anthropological Film Association Festival Denmark, 2010