Heroines:The Photographic Obsession of Lincoln Clarkes

Asalaamuwalaikum,



Just wanted to tell you about another REALLY good documentary I saw on Free Speech TV. Its one that tells stories of the women that live on the streets of Canada. Some are drug addicts, other are prostitutes. At first, I was kind of hesitant to see it, but Allahamdullilah, Im really glad I did. It really made my realize, that we TRULY TRULY cannot judge anyone. These women had just horrible (yet inspiring) stories...and definitly need help, not to feel rejected. It's amazing to me how these women still have the courage to live. May Allah help them find the right path and get the help they need.



I highly recommend this documentry.



Synopsis:



Heroines has screened at film festivals around the world including the 2002 Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival where it won Best of the Festival, Best Documentary General Subject, Best Videography (Brian Johnson), Best Original Music (John Korsrud) and The National Film Board Kathleen Shannon Award which is given to the independent filmmaker whose production "provides an opportunity for people outside the dominant culture to speak for themselves".



In addition, Heroines was honoured this year at the Leo Awards where it won the awards for Best Documentary Program or Series - Arts/Performing Arts and Best Musical Score. The documentary also picked up nominations for Best Director (Stan Feingold) and Best Picture Editing (Shirley Anne Claydon).





Lincoln Clarkes is a self-confessed addict. Every week he ventures into a heroin ghetto ? not to shoot up, but to shoot portraits. Lincoln is drawn to the tragic beauty of the prostitutes and addicts of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, one of North America's poorest neighborhoods. "Heroines", Lincoln's photographic project, has become his consuming artistic passion.



Heroines is a compelling one-hour film about Lincoln Clarkes' photographic obsession with forgotten women of the street. The provocative program explores a rarely seen netherworld of drug addiction, prostitution and survival.



Unlike a conventional documentary, Heroines does not offer balanced analysis. Rather, Heroines is a subjective art film that reveals itself from the inside out, without the perspectives and judgements of content experts. The film presents the intimate, personal stories of six street women, each a photographic subject of Lincoln Clarkes. The women share painful and often shocking aspects of their lives with remarkable insight, from childhood abuse to life as a sex worker, lost motherhood and the psychological role of drugs.



Instead of an objective script, Heroines features a series of original poems written and recited by Canadian writer Susan Musgrave. The poems are based on and inspired by the stories of the featured women, and the photographic mission of Lincoln Clarkes. The poems are infused and charged with Susan's personal understanding of addiction, loss, sexuality and desperation.



Combining elements of jazz and avante garde new music, John Korsrud's poignant and disturbing score adds a powerful emotional dimension to the film. Heroines was filmed by cinematographer Brian Johnson and directed by Stan Feingold.



Like the portraits of Lincoln Clarkes, Heroines humanizes a world many would sooner forget: a ghetto of the homeless, the abused, the addicted, the criminalized, and the murdered. Trapped on the margins of society, these women are the equivalent of the "disappeared" in totalitarian third-world regimes. Heroines reveals the terrible trajectory and desperate path of these lives, giving a human face and voice to Canada's "disappeared".