When you make a doc about homeless guys racing shopping carts in North Vancouver, you probably expect to elicit a laugh or two. But, while the guffaws do come quick and often in Murray Siple’s latest, Carts of Darkness, it’s not because of the premise, but because of the funny, quick-witted and personable guys he’s spent the last three years following around. This isn’t one of those homeless-guys-are-just-like-us exercises in upper-middle class guilt trips. As it turns out, these guys are nothing like us.
Take Big Al for instance, a bearded, baseball cap-wearing type of guy who just happens to make his home behind a tree and goes scoping for shopping carts not just for employment (bottle collecting), but also enjoyment (racing down the steep streets of this Van City suburb). For Al, freshly out of jail where things moved much too slow, this is an extreme sport you see and not just something for kicks. As soon as he’s done collecting and returning his empties, making up to $25 for his efforts, the afternoon is laid out before him. “This is freedom,” he says.
It’s the same deal for Fergie, an older gent living in the woods, who makes sure to keep a bottle on him at all times. Liquor is his lubricant for life and going through the motions is a whole lot smoother when you’ve got the hooch by your side. But, one night Fergie takes a nasty fall, landing on his trusty drink and splintering the nerves in his hand. He uses the disability cheques to rent a small basement apartment and it's where one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the film takes place: watching him curl up on the floor in a corner, literally below the feet of everyday society. Falling asleep is easy down there he says, where he can, “finally live like a human being.”
As the victim of a car accident 10 years prior, Siple, a one-time snowboarder is a quadriplegic and so effectively uses this juxtaposition to frame the film that at some point the filmmaker essentially becomes part of the story. It's a tale where a man relegated to a wheelchair can find true kinship in men immobilized by addiction and poverty. “If I was in your shoes,” Fergie confines in Siple one day, “I’d be drinking everyday.”
With Hot Docs wrapping up for yet another, it looks as if the Canadian appetite for compelling real life stories on the big screen is gaining momentum. Over the 11 day festival, over 85,000 people took in the 172 films. Featured guests included Isabella Rossellini, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. James Orbinski and Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll. Some of the top honours (as voted by the audiences) went to Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, Planet B Boy and Daddy Tran: A Life in 3-D.