The filmmaker Melanie Wood discusses her new series on Knowledge, Living in HOpe (airing Tuesdays in November at 9pm), a documentary looking at the patients, healthcare providers, and facilities at North Vancouver’s HOpe Centre, an in and outpatient mental health facility, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

A ground-breaking documentary series that’s about to debut on the Knowledge Network and online at www.knowledge.ca is Living in HOpe. It’s the culmination of more than a year of filming at North Vancouver’s HOpe Centre. Melanie Wood joins me now, she is the series creator, producer and director. It’s rather outstanding in how she and her crew are able to document the lives of the patients at their most vulnerable. We get a sense of their illnesses, and their treatment, but also an idea as to the challenges they face in society outside of HOpe, but as well as how mental illness and substance abuse use disorder are depicted in the media thus garnering an unnecessary stigma from society. The film features patients who are creative and sometimes hilarious. They’re humans with dignity that’s captured so well in this series. I’ll get Melanie to tell us about the genesis of this series, as well as the people therein, not just the patients but the tireless care providers; doctors and nurses and others that give so much of themselves through their work. Melanie Wood’s work include the documentaries School of Secrets, Liberia ’77, and Shut Up and Say Something. She was first on this program in 2013, just as her documentary Foncie’s Corner on Foncie Pulice, the famed Vancouver street photographer was to debut on Knowledge. Living in HOpe begins Tuesday, 06 November 2018, and will run every Tuesday evening at 9pm until 27 November 2018. There are four episodes. And they’ll all be available for streaming at www.knowledge.ca. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Melanie Wood; Ms. Wood, good morning.

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