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“Who Cares” made its World Premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto; screenings at DOXA in Vancouver; and sold out screenings in Winnipeg and Edmonton.

Synopsis:

Who CaresThis disturbing yet revealing cinéma vérité-style film enters the gritty and dangerous world of Edmonton’s sex trade workers, telling the powerful story of women caught in a heartbreaking cycle of addiction, violence and prostitution. Courtney, known as “the prostitute from 107th avenue,” struggles to stay clean; Shelly takes care of everyone but herself when she’s not on crystal meth; and Nancy, a sweet young girl, explains her bruises away as accidents. They drop by the Reno Pub to get out of the cold, shoot a game of pool and swap stories with the bartender about their lives and their dreams of getting straight. Meanwhile, out on the streets, in this post-Pickton era where the unthinkable is a gruesome reality, women voluntarily provide DNA samples to an RCMP Project Kare task force investigating the unsolved murders of women, so that their next of kin can be notified if the worst should happen.

About the filmmaker:

Rosie Dransfeld’s character-driven, cinéma vérité films are powerful pieces of poetry on the human condition. She started her career in Germany, working intensely on a wide range of TV programming. After moving to Canada she made several films for the CBC, including the award-winning NFB co-production The Dogwalker. For TVO, she produced and directed Broke, which had its world premiere at Hot Docs 2009 and won the Donald Brittain Gemini Award for Best Social/Political Documentary. In Who Cares she delves into the dark and troubling world of street prostitution unfolding a few blocks away from her home in Edmonton.

About the NFB
The National Film Board of Canada creates groundbreaking interactive works, social-issue documentaries and auteur animation. The NFB’s award-winning content can be seen at NFB.ca and on apps for smartphones, tablets and connected TV. Canada’s public producer and distributor since 1939, the NFB has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 6 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies.

The feature documentary Who Cares, by Gemini Award-winning filmmaker Dransfeld is available to audiences at NFB.ca via Download to Own and Video on Demand starting January 8, 2013, Who Cares is produced for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) by Bonnie Thompson.

Lauren Schell