Bums with bite

>> Heater takes on social services at the First People's Film Fest

by JOANNE LATIMER

 After making a splash at Sundance 2000 and picking up two prizes at the Vancouver film fest in November, Heater is in town to headline the First People's Film Fest. You'd never know that the film's director, Terrance Odette, is a music video director who's won several Canadian awards because of Heater's steady pace and stripped-down style. It's not glam, not in any way, and its vérité sensibility is its strength.

 Odette's film throws the audience immediately into the lives of two homeless guys during winter. One is played by Gary Farmer, the other by Stephen Ouimette. We see them robbed of their dignity, desperate and alienated by social service bureaucrats. We don't even learn their names. Gary Farmer's hockey jacket bears the name Ben, but it could be a second-hand coat from the shelter. We'll call him Ben. The other guy is listed in the credits as The Man.

 "Ben" and The Man meet at a drop-in shelter, where The Man tries to sell Ben a portable heater--thus, the title. The Man has stolen the heater and is too jittery to return it to Eaton's for a cash refund. Ben needs money to rent a room for a week, but the welfare folks won't give him his living allowance cheque without I.D. Ben can't afford to replace his missing First Nations Status Card--not again.

 Odette's film is biting and focused, making us forget that Odette provides no history about the two leads. The Man is obviously a nut-bar with a series of phobias and mental illnesses. Ben is just down on his luck. They pool their talents, in a hapless way, and bumble through their "plan."

 Odette makes beautiful a couple of bums stumbling through parks and a frozen field in Winnipeg, if you can believe it. The camera work is stunning throughout, with a nod to American Beauty (the chic plastic-bag-in-the-wind), as Odette delivers a classy slap across the face to social services autocrats. :

 

Heater shows one day only, June 13 at 5pm and 7pm at the ONF, 1564 St-Denis. The First People's Film Fest runs June 12-14 at the NFB. See Repertory listings for showtimes