Those Canadians are always up to something cool, no pun intended!
Heroic Moves By The Homeless
By THERESA TAYLER, SUN MEDIA
From the streets of Calgary, to the soccer pitch in South Africa, three Calgary homeless men made a journey they will never forget.
When Calgary brothers and moviemakers Mike and Kevin Scullion first decided to head to Calgary's downtown Drop-In Centre to start a soccer team, they never expected to form a league of men who would eventually represent Canada at the Homeless World Cup in South Africa.
Mike Scullion, producer and screenwriter of Downtown Dawgs: Road to the Homeless World Cup, thought at most they would gather research to make a fictional movie about a group of homeless men who join a soccer team.
"We began this as research for a movie we wanted to make. We thought maybe we would end up with a 20-minute show. But we ended up with the documentary," says Mike.
The Scullions follow five homeless men who join a soccer team facilitated by Drop-In Centre counsellor Esau Tamura and Kevin, who eventually ends up as coach and becomes involved in the men's lives as they make the effort to rejoin mainstream society.
"This was not always an easy project to be in. I nearly quit several times - my brother (Kevin) kept me involved," says Mike.
As the Scullions progressed in filming, they forged relationships with the five men who would become the "Downtown Dawgs."
They watched as each homeless man battled with addictions and problems that sometimes seemed completely insurmountable.
In the end, three men were selected to join the Canadian team who went to Cape Town, South Africa, for the 2006 World Homeless Cup.
Of those three, one man, Adam Vernon, has made his way back into normal society.
Vernon took on the role as team captain in South Africa and he now works as an adult support worker at the Calgary Drop-In Centre and is resuming studies to complete a degree at the University of Calgary.
The other four team members are unaccounted for, presumably having returned to street life.
Downtown Dawgs: Road to the Homeless World Cup is showing at the Edmonton International Film Festival today at 9:15 p.m. at the Empire City Centre 9 theatre with the film's producer and director Mike Scullion in attendance.
