Synopsis
Tailored to the needs of the residents of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, East Hastings pharmacy dispenses a limited type of medication to its clients, such as methadone, a daily treatment aiming to reduce withdrawal symptoms in people addicted to heroin. As most clients in those pharmacies don’t have “carry privileges”, they have to attend the pharmacy every day to take their medication, witnessed by the pharmacist. The complex relationship between pharmacist and patient is exposed: the necessity for the clients to “clock in” every day, the difficulty for the pharmacist to keep a professional distance in the midst of sometimes dramatic exchanges with the same patients day after day. East Hasting Pharmacy was made in collaboration with residents of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside through improvisations and re-enactment of their daily reality.
A word from Tënk
A closed session, at the crossroad of documentary and fiction, East Hastings Pharmacy has immediately confirmed the accuracy and originality of Antoine Bourges’ vision and approach. Through his sober description of the daily life of a methadone drugstore in Vancouver, the filmmaker depicts with infinite sensitivity the reality of a memorable non-place. The film was made possible by the collaborative work of an actress and the residents of the neighborhood, who alternate between improvisation and the reenactment of real-life scenes. Unadorned, the directing aligns fixed shots and brilliantly plays on the length of specific scenes to better invite us to absorb important details of the place. Highlighting in its frame the multiple windows of the drugstore that separate beings, Bourges reveals the complexity of this transitory space, which, behind its apparent coldness, bears silent witness to numerous human dramas and the impassable distance that sometimes separates us all. Without any pathos, the film invites us to better see those whom society and cinema too often relegate to the peripheries of the world.
Bruno Dequen
Editor in Chief, 24 images
