If the pandemic lifted the veil on the deficiencies in care for older people, the curtain fell quickly. Hoping to bring the issue back into the public sphere, Montreal filmmaker Helene Klodawsky is presenting a film about a Toronto lawyer’s fight against the opaque for-profit health center industry at the Montreal International Documentary Meetings Stolen Time.
Published at 1:27 am. Updated at 7:00 a.m.
Melissa Miller is representing several families in a class action lawsuit against long-term care companies. As a partner at the Toronto law firm Howie Sacks and Henry LLP, she is fighting to have these negligence cases heard in court as a whole to prove systemic negligence on the part of these companies that operate Ontario offices similar to the CHSLDs. privately in Quebec.
“When I heard the same thing, I said to myself, ‘This isn’t a coincidence.’ That’s something I really want to delve into and figure out,” Melissa Miller says at the start of the film.
Dehydration, poorly treated wounds, poor diagnoses, rotten teeth: the stories told by residents’ relatives and health workers with accompanying photos are frightening. A client of Melissa Miller describes what she saw when the nurse removed the bandage covering a wound on her mother’s body, a pressure sore that had developed into an infection. “The hole in his body was unbelievable. The only way I can describe it is that I probably stuck my fist in it. I could see his tailbone. » However, the nursing staff at the center had told him about a small wound that had healed.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Helene Klodawsky
Although this film asks many difficult questions, I do not consider it a depressing or discouraging film. We see that there is something to do and show people who guide and inspire us to demand something, which in my opinion is very fair.
Helene Klodawsky, director
Helene Klodawsky became interested in the topic of elder care as the shadows of the recent pandemic loomed and friends were already worried about the fate of their parents and spouses in nursing homes. She found in Melissa Miller, whom she discovered through a video on YouTube, the way to make this topic interesting, a topic rarely discussed in the cinema apart from the moving “I Placed My Mother” by Denys Desjardins.
“I’ve been looking for a way to approach such topics with imagination for a long time,” says the director. His approach was made even more complex by the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulty of obtaining permission to film in facilities. The film is therefore based on testimonies, photos and drawings of Lisa Alleyne, a woman who worked as a beneficiary carer, and on the strength and charisma of the protagonist, whom she followed for four years.
“When you first see her in her high heels, you would never think she was fighting for old people,” notes Ms. Klodawsky. For me, the question of how we can combine the market and capitalism with care is very urgent. The population is aging, everyone will need care and when the market controls everything it raises very important questions. Can we exploit vulnerability? How can we fight, how can we influence what is happening? »
A call for justice
During filming, Helene Klodawsky said she was shocked by the triangle between vulnerable people, their families and health workers. “There is a phrase I learned: “The working conditions are the conditions of care.” [les conditions de travail sont les conditions de soins].” »
This work is mainly carried out by women and immigrants, who are often racially motivated and often receive very low wages. It is very precarious work. Large companies benefit from this work, from this vulnerability. It’s global, not just in Quebec or Canada.
Helene Klodawsky, director
When she turns her camera on the Ontario system, it’s partly because the for-profit care center industry is growing faster there than elsewhere, she says. But in her opinion, the issue of privatizing health care for seniors is a pan-Canada issue, especially since the companies being sued in Ontario also operate in other provinces.
“I think this film will show people that this is not an individual experience and that we must use it as a call for justice for profound change,” says Helene Klodawsky. I’m making this film with the NFB [coproduction avec Intuitive Pictures]It gave us a chance to really share that feeling here in Quebec and across Canada. »
Ana Alice de Morais, Co-Artistic Director, RIDM Programming and RIDM Forum, speaks of Stolen Time as a “strikingly powerful documentary that is particularly significant in the current post-pandemic context.” “Through the daily struggles of lawyer Melissa Miller, a character as determined as she is charismatic, the film highlights the fact that the vulnerability of older people in Canada is not an isolated case, but a problem deeply rooted in society. »
Stolen Time will be shown in the original version with French subtitles on November 19th at 3 p.m. in the Museum Cinema and on November 26th at 1 p.m. in the Parc Cinema as part of the RIDM.