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The Downtown Project - DVD/Le plan - DVD
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-Laurent 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 04 s
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