Ryan Sudds

Sudds’s Just Poems (About Drugs) depicts long-time members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), an organization Osborn helped create in the early 2000s, as they browse the poet’s archived notebooks at Simon Fraser University. With his writings as a touchstone, they reflect on Osborn’s legacy and VANDU’s ongoing work.

This film follows the work of community members, advocates and supporters to bring an end to street sweeps - the practice of city workers and police displacing unhoused people from public spaces. On July 1st, 2022, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) pulled out of accompanying City of Vancouver workers during street sweeps. This reprieve allowed unhoused residents to setup shelters leading to the Hastings St. Tent City. Over the following months, the City and VPD engaged in a campaign to banish people to nowhere, providing no housing and no suitable shelter. During this time, residents, community members and advocates fought back, demanding accountability and an end to displacement.