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The Downtown Project
Description
Seventeen hundred tenants from 70 different countries, with an average
household income of $12,000, in a series of buildings covering almost a square
kilometre: Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance is the largest social housing complex
in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, just a
stone’s throw from Montreal’s bustling Sainte-Catherine Street and Saint
Lawrence Boulevard, it has retained something of the area’s seedy reputation
for poverty, prostitution, drugs and violence. But who really knows the
projects and the people who live there? Delving beneath the prejudices and
stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside and met the residents.
The result is The Downtown Project, a documentary that reveals a
complex multi-ethnic reality made up of compelling personal stories and social
movements. Grappling with the stresses of immigration and cultural
integration, the projects’ diverse inhabitants pride themselves on the sense
of community they share.
2011, 52 min 03 s
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