Toronto Outdoor Picture Show Programming Underscores The City’s Housing Crisis
Screening at Christie Pits on July 21, Someone Lives Here tackles a key city issue
Toronto Outdoor Picture Show (TOPS), founded in 2011 by artistic and executive director Emily Reid, is centred around the love of film and a desire to build community. The charitable organization curates its annual outdoor film festival’s programming in communities across the city, from Corktown Common to Bell Manor Park, combining the screenings of popular cinema with local and Canadian short and feature films.
Photography by Emily Atherton.
Screening at Christie Pits on July 21 is a film that shines a light on a compassionate approach to combating homelessness, one of the most pressing issues the city of Toronto faces. Someone Lives Here by 2024 TOPS Spotlight Filmmaker Zack Russell follows carpenter Khaleel Seivwright on his journey engineering tiny shelters for Toronto’s unhoused communities.
Courtesy of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show.
The winner of the Hot Docs 2023 Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, Someone Lives Here emphasizes the need for more robust infrastructure amidst the city’s housing crisis, growing rates of homelessness, underfunded, overenrolled shelter systems and hostile architecture. The documentary showcases Seivwright’s work and encounters with bureaucracy while interweaving the stories of unhoused Torontonians and frontline support workers.
Still from Someone Lives Here.
Showing alongside Someone Lives Here are short films The Repair Shop and Mathilde and the Love Room, which also focus on the providing community care, navigating institutional barriers and building spaces that feel like home.
Courtesy of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show.
Toronto Outdoor Picture Show revels in emphasizing important messaging within its programming. The essence of coming together for something greater rings true though this year’s “On The Job” programming theme.
TOPS exists at the intersection of community and culture. Artistic and executive director Emily Reid explains that nonprofits and charitable organizations like Toronto Outdoor Picture Show do essential work in our communities.
“While acting as an Arts organizations, highlighting working artists while seeking to entertain and enrich communities, TOPS also functions as a cause-driven nonprofit, working towards effecting positive change at all levels, from vital on-the-ground support for individuals to improving government policies for us all,” says Reid.
Toronto Outdoor Picture Show is currently fundraising to keep its free public programmes afloat, despite a significant financial shortfall this year. Donations from the public can be made here.