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Four Feet Up
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Description
Twenty years after the House of Commons promised “to eliminate poverty among
Canadian children,” 8-year-old Isaiah is trying hard to
grow up healthy, smart and well adjusted despite the odds stacked against him.
Isaiah knows he’s been categorized as “less fortunate,” and his short life has
seen more than his share of social workers, food banks and police
interventions. His parents struggle to overcome a legacy of stereotypes, abuse
and dysfunction and desire more than anything for Isaiah and his siblings to
have access to the opportunities they never had.
In Four Feet Up, her second
NFB documentary, award-winning photographer and filmmaker Nance Ackerman
invites us into the lives of this determined family for an intimate and
touching experience of child poverty in one of the richest countries in the
world.
Ackerman spent two years with Isaiah and his family, developing a
relationship entrusted to her to share with us through her tender care and
vision. As her portrait of the family unfolds with the help of Isaiah’s
creative input, curiosity and zest for life, so do Ackerman’s own feelings
about the responsibilities of Canadians - to raise all children as our best
investment in the nation’s future and to take a more critical look at how we
measure wealth.
2008, 46 min 15 s
Awards
Christopher Ball- Award for Best Cinematography
Atlantic Film Festival
September 17 to 26 2009, Halifax - Canada
