Children of Alcohol

Taken in by a loving family at the age of eight weeks, Alanna grew up in the majestic wilderness of the Yukon mountains. Because her mother drank heavily during pregnancy, Alanna's development was seriously compromised. She has fetal alcohol syndrome. She will never be like other kids. Tackling the subject with sensitivity, Julie Plourde's documentary speaks to the heart. Alanna is a wake-up call about a tragedy that's largely underestimated by the public but of growing concern to health professionals around the world. This short film was produced as part of the Tremplin contest, which gives young francophone directors outside Quebec a chance to make their first film under professional conditions.

A revealing portrait of two young addicts, their life on the street and their despairing parents who find themselves powerless to save their children from the habit that is consuming them. As filmmaker Andrée Cazabon follows Cathy and Laurent for many months, recording their desperate drug-fuelled existence, she remembers her own life on the street. "My parents and I relived that horror," she says of her creative journey. But it was for all parents that she made this film. Cathy's and Laurent's parents live in a permanent state of bewildered anxiety and guilt. How can they avoid being totally destroyed by grief? How do they manage to carry on with their lives, in spite of everything? And how do they deal with a system that views them with suspicion? By grimly showing two children in the grip of a brutal addiction, No Quick Fix hopes to alleviate and identify some of the enormous pain endured by parents coping with an addicted child. In French with English subtitles.

In 1979 Norma Bailey made the gritty documentary Nose and Tina, about a prostitute, Tina, and her boyfriend, Nose. Fifteen years later Tina (now Linda), contacted Bailey from an alcohol rehabilitation centre. Sometimes funny, sometimes upsetting, but always reveting, Bailey follows Linda and her children, sisters, mother, boyfriends and various extended family members as they move in and out of Linda's life. The True Story of Linda M. takes us on a remarkable journey into the heart and soul of a woman struggling with the darkness that lurks beneath the surface of her psyche.