Who Cares? is a hard hitting and often demoralizing look at the lives of sex trade workers past and present that wander the desolate back streets of North East Edmonton. The sex trade industry in Edmonton is dangerous. It’s so dangerous that the police have instigated Project Kare, a project whose sole purpose appears to be to help protect high risk people such as the girls featured in the film. Throughout the film, director Rosie Dransfeld follows the lives of several people within this world – a policemen from Project Kare who has seen too many girls disappear, the locals at the Reno Pub – often seen as a safe place for the girls to decompress and then a few girls who have are or have been in the sex trade industry. All their tales are grim, and in the case of the girls, they are often tragic. Addictions, stigma and dealing with the past are all subjects that haunts these people and the documentary doesn’t hold back in showing you what they have been through and what they are continually dealing with. One of the main characters is named Courtney, a former prostitute who is attempting to rebuild her life. Given a camera to operate on her own, we get to see a first hand account of how difficult it is to pick up the pieces once it’s been shattered.
The cinéma vérité style of this film combined with the first person account (from Courtney) add up to paint a grim picture on the lives of the people in the film. Observatory in nature, those looking at the film for answers to the dangerous sex trade industry won’t find it here, which is perfect, because this is a problem that is without a solution.
Screenings
Wed, May 2 9:00 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3
Sat, May 5 6:45 PM, Cumberland 3