Us & Them (2015)

While filmed around downtown Victoria BC, US & THEM, produced by Krista Loughton and Jennifer Abbott (The Corporation) could take place in any Canadian town. Through her compassionate style of documentary filmmaking, Krista Loughton lends a familiarity to all that she interviews. Krista's subjects aren't "just homeless." They are not faceless apparitions wandering the streets. These people are the friends and family that we all know in our communities, who need our support.

US & THEM shatters misconceptions about why people end up on the streets, and reveals why the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" narrative is heavily flawed. As one such interviewee, Dawnella Gautherier, reveals, leaving the streets is not as simple as going to the neighbourhood shelter. In the late 2000s, Dawnlella found herself banned from multiple shelters because of violent night terrors that she was afflicted with, caused by the death of her son.

The goal of US & THEM is to educate as many people as possible on the realities of homelessness, and to encourage proactive solutions. Filmmaker Krista Loughton wants “people to watch the film and never look at a street person, or themselves, in the same way again.”