Once, Mikey and Kendell’s friends boasted they’d never get in trouble and never sell drugs, but by age 15 half of them have done just that. In this beautifully shot and intimate documentary, Oscar-nominated director Hubert Davis reaches beyond his own story-so eloquently captured in Hardwood-to follow two charismatic Regent Park boys as they make the transition from youth to manhood. Each runs into trouble with police, the courts, and school authorities despite having mothers whose love is palpable and Morgan’s heroic attempt at mentoring. With none of the privileges of wealth and all of the prejudices of poverty, with absent fathers, a landscape of half-demolished buildings, vacant lots and systemic racism stacked against them, the boys struggle to turn their lives around.

From Academy Award nominated (for Hardwood) Canadian filmmaker Hubert Davis.

There’s unconfirmed reports that this’ll make it to television next month; I’ll keep you posted.

Hopefully docs like this get us thinking more critically about where we live and the social circumstances of those around us.