Hot Docs 2008

Bevel Up is a compelling documentary that follows outreach nurses through their day-to-day work as they bring healthcare directly to youth, sex workers, addicts and street people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. As they work with people in alleys and seedy hotels, the nurses reflect on why they do this work, and about the respectful and nonjudgmental relationship so crucial in developing trust. That they, and the filmmakers, have earned this trust is apparent in the honest, wry and painful observations from both nurses and street people. Nettie Wild's award-winning documentaries have shown her to be one of Canada's most socially committed and skilled directors, a filmmaker who embeds her belief that "behind the politics in our communities lie human dramas that deeply affect our lives" into her films. While Bevel Up stands alone as a powerful vérité documentary, Wild has designed it to be the heart of a groundbreaking interactive DVD.
-Lynne Fernie