The 7 Interventions of Filmmaker-in-Residence

This is the presentation of the pilot project for the National Film Board of Canada's (NFB) new Filmmaker in Residence program. It is a continuation of what the NFB started in the 1960s and 1970s with Challenge the Change, and is devoted to community-based media production explicitly aimed at social change. For this first project, documentary filmmaker Katerina Cizek took up "residence" at the St. Michael Hospital in Toronto. The site explains that staff and patients at the hospital were not merely the subject of her work, but also partners in it. Visitors can crisscross through her story at their own tempo, viewing texts, photographs, sound collages, and video images. Cizek follows three organizations that are connected with the hospital at various levels in the community. She joins Brendon, a police officer, and Ellen, a psychiatric nurse, as they work together on the Mobile Crisis Intervention Team. She also accompanies doctors from Dignitas International to Malawi, where the hospital makes its spearheading contribution to the struggle against HIV/AIDS. In addition, Cizek works with young women who have experienced homelessness on a photo blog project run by the Young Parents, No Fixed Address network.