Pubdate: Mon, 08 May 2006
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
id=cfa30434-cc43-4116-9ff1-668f61a559a6
Copyright: 2006 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Shannon Proudfoot, The Ottawa Citizen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/women.htm (Women)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/oprah (Winfrey, Oprah)

LISA'S STORY OF ADDICTION, PROSTITUTION TO BE RECOUNTED TO MILLIONS  
ON OPRAH

Toronto Woman In Canadian Documentary Cracked Not Broken

A documentary about a Toronto woman who sold her body to support her  
crack addiction -- despite a "good" family and an elite education --  
will gain an audience of 10 million when it is featured today on the  
Oprah Winfrey Show.

Cracked Not Broken is the story of Lisa, now 38, who grew up in  
Toronto's tony Rosedale neighbourhood and attended the private Bishop  
Strachan School. Despite some alcohol and cocaine abuse, she attended  
university and although she never graduated, the intelligent young  
woman held down jobs at ScotiaMcLeod investments and managing a  
Yorkville restaurant.

Then, in her late-20s, Lisa tried crack for the first time.

"It just grabbed a hold of her from the first time she tried it, and  
her life sort of spiralled from there," says producer Tom Powers.  
Lisa was forced to give her mother custody of her daughter, now five,  
as she turned to the streets to support her habit.

The documentary, a joint production of Open Door and  
blatantexposure.film, is directed by Paul Perrier and offers a real- 
time glimpse into Lisa's life as an addict and prostitute, with most  
of the footage shot during a single take in a downtown Toronto hotel.

Clips from the film and an interview with Lisa open today's Oprah  
episode, Inside the Lives of Young Prostitutes, which was taped in  
Chicago on Thursday. Lisa was flown in from southern California,  
where she has been in treatment at the AA&E Retreat rehab centre for  
the last few weeks.

In therapist's terms, Lisa is a "habitual relapser" who cycles on and  
off the streets. However, the production team on the documentary is  
now intimately involved in her life -- financing the film and some of  
Lisa's treatment out of their own pockets -- and hopeful she will  
find her way out of the woods.

Mr. Perrier's wife, Nicol Kalman, was a friend of Lisa's in their  
high school days at Bishop Strachan. One day when Lisa was in a sober  
period, she visited the couple and Mr. Perrier asked her opinion on  
some footage he had shot for another documentary about a crack  
addict. Lisa was impressed and told him that if she ever went back  
out on the streets, she would call him to turn his lens on her life.

The call came on a Friday afternoon in February 2004. Mr. Perrier had  
little intention of making a film about Lisa, but he took his camera  
and met her at a hotel, where she was awaiting the Bay Street  
clientele who financed the drugs she poured into her damaged veins.

"It's really powerful footage," Mr. Powers says. "At the end of the  
day, the message of the movie is this can happen to anyone, and quite  
frankly, it's happening more in well-to-do families than anyone  
realizes."

The film was first screened at the Toronto's Regent Theatre in  
September. It has been shown in that venue a handful of times since,  
but the most receptive audiences have been the 3,500 students and  
parents who have viewed the film in Toronto private schools. Ottawa's  
Ashbury College recently contacted Mr. Powers about showing the  
documentary this fall.

He says the film was not intended for a private school audience, but  
after several administrators attended the first screening at the  
Regent, calls started to come in from various schools. When Lisa was  
not in treatment, she attended the screenings and spoke after the film.

"It was very powerful to have her walk off the screen, essentially,  
and start taking questions about what these kids have just seen,"  
says Mr. Powers.

Cracked Not Broken will get its U.S. premiere at the San Francisco  
Documentary Film Festival later this month and has broadcast deals  
for Britain and Israel, but right now, DVD sales from the website  
crackednotbroken.com is the only means of distribution.
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