Thieves of Innocence
Thieves of Innocence
| 07 October 2005 (USA)
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Every year in Quebec, 25,000 reports of children being beaten, sexually abused or abandoned are retained by the Directorate of Youth Protection. And nearly 40% of babies who die in the province to die because of the violence of their parents. This explains the fact that nearly 30,000 children are supported by the DPJ until the age of 18. But this government agency is in a position to meet the needs of young people? Journalist and documentary filmmaker Paul Arcand presents the testimonies of children and adult victims of abuse of all kinds, and interviews politicians, social workers and members of the judiciary on their perception of the problem. In addition, Arcand denounces the carelessness of a bureaucratic system that does not always seem to be concerned about the well-being of those for whom they are responsible.

Reviews
Louis-Philippe Coutu-Nadeau

Are we sleepwalker? How, being an evolved race, can we close our eyes and shut our mouth on a subject like the children abused by brainless adults. These animals that thinks only with their libido don't deserve jail, but certainly being hung.The great idea to film a movie picture on the life of those abused children come from the production of the movie Aurore in 2005, when the producer Denise Robert gathered real stories of people in this situation. This project had to make things move, but the results were not satisfying. Since she directed this movie, she still made some money like her 2003 movie picture, The Barbarian Invasions. But she mostly understood that her movie wasn't fiction, so she decided to make her documentary. She comes back this time with Les Voleurs d'enfance and she let Paul Arcand realized this movie, a serious man that goes to the end of what he explores.In his interview on the radio or on television, Arcand use his microphone like a weapon in front of their victims. Here, he chose a camera to film himself the harsh reality of these children that lived Hell. On the hundreds of hours accumulated, only 90 minutes was kept. Of course, the DPJ, the social workers and the minister Margaret F. Delisle had to put their nose into the story... However, Arcand gives a lot of questions without answers or solutions.Like the ingenious Michael Moore with Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) and Bowling for Columbine (2002), Paul Arcand went on the field to look for the truth that was looking for an ear to be heard. Arcand would love to relive the experience behind a camera. Let's cross our fingers and hope that he make another documentary on another hot topic. His place is there. Les Voleurs d'enfance is a documentary sometimes saddening, sometimes shocking, to poen our eyes on a nightmarish reality. The silence exists for too long, it is time to let them speak.

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