Quebec’s award-winning documentary filmmaker Hélène Choquette follows a different path with her latest film, A Dog’s Life – where she explores the bond between homeless people and their dogs.

EMAfilms presents this powerful, and touching film, which gets a Toronto premiere at Hot Docs, Wednesday May 4 at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

On the street, in a squat, or rooming house, the film shows how homeless people manage through their daily struggles with the help of their faithful companion. Without judgment the film explores the advantages and disadvantages of having a dog when you have no roof over your head.

Shot in Toronto and Montreal, the film portrays a universal reality the homeless face in many of the world’s major cities.

“My goal is not to trivialize a subject that has been visited many times before,” says Choquette, “but simply to investigate this crisis from a fresh point of view. In my previous films I have explored homelessness in an indirect way. With A Dog's Life, I tackle the subject head-on.”

For those living in the Toronto area, here are the screening times and dates: 

Wednesday, May 4 - 6:45PM
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St W)

Thursday, May 5 -10:15AM
Isabel Bader Theater (93 Charles St W)

Saturday May 7 -1:30PM

About Hélène Choquette

Documentary filmmaker Hélène Choquette has won multiple awards at home and internationally. Her films have focused on people and crucial issues ranging from foreign caregivers (“A Better Life” 2005), environmental refugees (“The Refugee’s of The Blue Planet”, 2006), Chernobyl disaster victims (“Children of Chernobyl”, 2006), human trafficking in Canada (“Avenue Zero”, 2009), to Burmese boys exploited in a Thai boxing camp (“Fists of Pride”, 2012). One of Hélène’s latest projects, “Unité 9 le Documentaire”, about the family struggles of female prisoners, won the 2015 Public Award Prize at the Web Program Festival in Paris.