A BRILLIANT 1975 Short Film of the DTES

[Prometheus]

Here is an ABSOLUTE gem of a film from the National Film Board about an old-school beat cop patrolling Skid Row in 1975. It is a wonderful window into a Vancouver that no longer exists. Although it reveals a Hastings Street with similar vice, crime, addiction and misery, it also shows the street during more dynamic times, when it still had some remnants of life, colour, energy and legitimate businesses.

An absolute must-watch for anyone who wants to see a gritty urban poem about Old School Vancouver and an Old School cop patrolling its heaviest street:

http://www.nfb.ca/film/whistling_smith

P.S. Is our culture becoming so inarticulate? Even the bums, crooks, prostitutes and addicts in 1975 are more well-spoken than most people today.

[hollywoodnorth]

thx for the link

[danby]

awesome link!

[delboy]

thx....interesting to see how cops were pre-charter. A lot of his tactics would be charter violations today not to mention criminal offences!

The DTES has not changed much that's for sure.

[Dylan Leblanc]

What's a "who-er?"

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

P.S. Is our culture becoming so inarticulate? Even the bums, crooks, prostitutes and addicts in 1975 are more well-spoken than most people today.

Haha, I noticed that in the first sentence of the movie. "How are you subsisting?"

Sorry wha...?

For a real mind trick try reading a newspaper from 100 years ago. We've been dumbed down... A LOT.

[SFUVancouver]

@ 7:40 "When Office Smith walks the beat the crime rate is cut in half"

I'm speechless.

@10:40 something along the lines of "Vanilla extract is the preferred drink as it is the cheapest source of alcohol. More vanilla extract is sold in the downtown east side than in the rest of the city of Vancouver combined. And nobody is baking any cakes."

@14:00 something along the lines of "We should make doing drugs and being a prostitute as hard as possible, so hard that it isn't worth doing. Does that sound utopian?"

Also he said that welfare was $175 a month in 1975. A prostitute said she used to use $300 a day in drugs.

"The crooks are scared of you" "No shit, they should be. I make it hard for them to do their business. Good!"

[agrant]

I remember seeing that video years ago. Not sure I agree with the police tactics, but what else could you do at the time? He's basically just trying to move the crime to another area. I'm curious to know approximately when, and how the DTES went from boom to shiit. I'm guessing it went downhill starting in the mid sixties???

[SpikePhanta]

Originally Posted by agrant

I remember seeing that video years ago. Not sure I agree with the police tactics, but what else could you do at the time? He's basically just trying to move the crime to another area. I'm curious to know approximately when, and how the DTES went from boom to shiit. I'm guessing it went downhill starting in the mid sixties???

From what i've read yes around that time, when Hastings and Main became less important when the streetcars left.

[SpongeG]

but the city has always been kind of bad - way back to the origins - there is a good documentary about the DTES and it goes way way back to the days of opium dens and prohibition etc.

vancouver being the main western canadian port city really is a gateway to all sorts of problems that have been here since the 1800's

[entheosfog]

Great video. I was surprised to hear about vanilla extract being so popular, I'd never heard that before.