Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jun 2007
Source: Westender (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 WestEnder
Contact:  http://www.westender.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1243
Author: Mary Frances Hill

THE PRICE OF DRUG ADDICTION CAPTURED ON TAPE IN
'TEARS FOR APRIL'

Cops-Turned-Filmmakers Document Tragic Lives

On Christmas Day in 2000, 25-year-old April Reoch's skinny, lifeless
body was found in a dumpster in the Downtown Eastside.

The tragedy would change many lives, including that of her boyfriend,
who made a frantic call to the police when news broke that a body had
been found; her young son, who was waiting for his mother's Christmas
Day visit; her many friends; and Al Arsenault, a police officer who
had known her for many years.

As a member of the Odd Squad, a team of constables who film
drug-education videos based on their experiences with addicts in the
Downtown Eastside, he had become acquainted with the aimless young
woman, and featured her in the popular 1999 documentary Through a Blue
Lens.

"I always predicted she'd end up with a toe tag," Arsenault says, in
an interview from the Abbott Street studio of Odd Squad Productions.
"[When we first met], she was a fresh-faced kid from Squamish, coming
down here, looking for a little excitement. I told her exactly what
was going to happen to her: she'd dabble in drugs, get hooked on them,
and then she'd have to turn herself out as a prostitute, and she'd be
in a living hell. It all came true."

Reoch's spiral into drug addiction -- which began,
as Arsenault says, at the age of 17 and continued
until her death eight years later -- has become
the focus for the Odd Squad's upcoming film,
Tears for April: Beyond the Blue Lens. The
documentary brings viewers up to date on the six
original drug addicts profiled in Through a Blue
Lens. By the time the credits roll in the
original documentary, a feature about the
relationship between the police officers and
addicts, Reoch is still alive, but struggling and
addicted. Tears for April covers news of her
tragic murder at the hands of an acquaintance
(the man convicted for her murder, with whom she
was living at the time, confessed to strangling
and smothering her after he found her trying to steal his rent money).

Arsenault takes on the storyteller role in Tears for April, while the
addicts remain its main characters. Aside from following April's tale,
the film follows the hopeful story of Randy, once a top-notch athlete
who fell into addiction and has since been on a steady path to
recovery. There's also Nicola, a mother of three from a well-to-do
family who fell into drug addiction and still wavers in and out of
substance abuse to this day. Carlee, another young addict, died of an
overdose in November 2001, almost a year after Reoch's murder. They
found drug addict Curtis in Ontario, just out of jail; Darlene has
also survived, but she, too, remains transient, unable to shake her
dependence on drugs.

"We are essentially making drama in a documentary format," says the
film's director, Ken Jubenvill, a longtime documentary filmmaker. "The
cop is the storyteller, and these addicts are the characters."

With director Mannix, and National Film Board funding, the Odd Squad,
then numbering seven officers, released Through a Blue Lens, which
travelled from festivals to the television screen to classrooms, being
hailed as the most successful production in the NFB's history. That
film, and the unique cops-turned-filmmakers behind it, were profiled
by ABC's 20/20 news program, Australia's 60 Minutes program, and
featured in the The New York Times and Maclean's magazine, among other
media.

"[The addicts] not only invited us into their lives, but into the most
sordid and depressing parts of their lives," says Arsenault. "They
don't want to see anybody else following in their footsteps,
especially children. They know they've messed up their lives, and they
wish they hadn't.

"If you asked drug addicts two questions -- 'Did you intend on
becoming an addict?' and 'Knowing what you know now, would you touch
drugs?' -- you get a solid no to both."

Though Arsenault has much to say about his opposition to
safe-injection sites in general -- and the Odd Squad website stresses
that treatment should be the highest priority in any civic harm
reduction plan -- Tears for April purposely doesn't go into that
controversial issue. The images and tragic stories, he says, speak for
themselves.

Arsenault, who tours the province speaking to high-school students
about the consequences of drug use, uses April's 'before' and 'after'
photos (the 'before' was taken when she was 17 years old) to show the
typical effects of severe drug addiction. It's effective, as it plays
on an adolescent's worst fears: "Kids aren't afraid of dying, but
they're afraid of losing their looks," Arsenault says.

Odd Squad Productions is a non-profit society
that raises funds through an annual gala
fundraiser they call Through a Blue Wall. All
proceeds go toward funding educational and
preventative materials for youth. Tears for
April: Beyond the Blue Lens has been selected to
screen at the Toronto International Film Festival
in the fall. Jubenvill says he hopes it'll play
in several festivals, with wider distribution anticipated for next year.

Though the National Film Board didn't participate in the film, the
fact that Tears for April picks up where the original film left off
may attract new audiences to Through a Blue Lens. "I think Tears for
April might renew interest," says Arsenault. "There may be a
synergistic effect both ways; it'll give a resurgence of shelf life,
and I'm sure both will do very well."
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MAP posted-by: Derek