Avalon McLean-Smits

Warrendale vs EMPz 4 Life: Exploring Childhood With Allan King

Documentary filmmaker Allan King often deals with the subject of the “other”

and the outcast in society. Sometimes his documentaries deal people who find

themselves in limbo after war in Estonia. Sometimes it is middle class North

American citizens who find themselves lost in their own world and run away to

another country to find their identity. Allan King’s first documentary, Skid Row,

deals with the drunks and addicts on skid row. He even dives into topics that are

otherwise left untouched by the camera, like the inside of a marriage, death, and

getting old. In each of these cases the characters experience strong feelings of hope

and of despair. Unfortunately, even his films dealing with children look at hope and

despair. Many of King’s films look at childhood and often reflect or search for things

that he was missing in his own childhood. Although his films deal with youth and

children from a variety of different eras, they all maintain similarities. This essay

will compare the children of the sixties from Warrendale (1967) with the children of

the twenty-first century from EMPz 4 Life (2006). They deal with two very different

issues up front, however, with a closer, look this essay will uncover similarities of

the treatment of children who are outcasts in society. It shall discuss how their

geography affects their identities, the role of broadcast media, and the role of the

adult and figures of authority in the children’s lives. The essay will make

connections between both films and Allan King’s own childhood.

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Each film takes place on opposite sides of Toronto and the children are

dealing with very different issues. EMPz 4 Life deals with the racism and struggles of

young black men living in Scarborough around the time of Toronto’s ‘summer of the

gun’. Very few people seem to care about the well-being or future of the boys, with

the exception of the men who started the Rose program that the boys are involved

in. They get bounced around schools and from detention to suspension. Warrendale

deals with emotionally disturbed youth who’s own families’ are unable to take care

of them for untold reasons. In both cases, the children have been isolated and

pinpointed as having a problem that society does not want to confront or deal with.

In addition to being outcasts in society, the geographical areas in which they live

and go to school became a way of isolating them and giving them identity. The

children in Warrendale, will always be known as the children from Warrendale.

Some people may have even said some of them should be somewhere else, like a

psychiatric ward. Either way, these children are being told about where they should

be, and it exists outside regular operating society. The children from EMPz 4 Life are

linked to place in a different way. It is because of where they happen to live that they

and their families are under constant harassment from the police and society.

Magazines and newspapers question whether their housing unit, Empringham, is

safe to live (torontoobserver.ca). Both Scarborough and Etobicoke are

neighbourhoods that underwent development post-World War II to become inner

suburban communities. They were largely compromised of single-family homes and

were built with the middle class family in mind. These working members of families

would have commuted to Toronto to work but would not have to live in the hustle

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and bustle of the city. Although, by 1967, Etobicoke’s population had increased

significantly, it lacked any sort of pedestrian, downtown core. It housed a large

automotive industry and strip malls. A very powerful shot in the film is at the

beginning when the camera pulls up and it is revealed to the audience how truly

isolated the children are in Etobicoke. The children, when they play outside, play in

a parking lot and what, seems to be piles of dirt. They still have fun but they are

restricted to their area. The audience can then decide if they are being isolated for

the benefit of society, or for the children.

The Empringham complex in the Malvern district of Scarborough is the

specific geographical area where EMPz 4 Life is focused. Malvern also underwent

major development in 1950 to become modern suburban community hosting

multiple single-family homes. However, in 1980, due to the high cost of living in

Toronto, the Malvern neighbourhood started to change. Poverty in the area

increased exponentially and United Way’s report Poverty by Postal Code in 2004

revealed that, “Immigrant and newcomer families now make up the large majority

of low-income households in high poverty neighbourhoods” and that, “by 2001

[visible minority families] accounted for over three-quarters” of all low-income

families (TCSA 9). In addition, “these pockets of concentrated poverty are also home

to more lone-parent families” (ibid). Because the area was not created with poverty

in mind, the area lacks the infrastructure and services to meet the needs of its

inhabitants. The area inhibits independence in the youth. A lot of the boys rely of

Brian Henry (one of adults in charge of the Rose program) to drive them to school

and math. Due to the fact that crime is associated with poverty, the media

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stereotypes the people living in poor communities to be associated with crime that

happens in the city. Unfortunately, reports dictate that a majority of the inhabitants

are non-white so the media vilifies young black men, like the ones followed in EMPz

4 Life, because they live in a specific area.

Despite the role of the media in vilifying black men, the boys in the film

maintain a lifestyle that fits in with the hip-hop and rap subculture of the western

world. In a TVO interview with Allan King on EMPz 4 Life, he tries to explain the

cycle that exists because of this racism. King says that the reason the boys are angry

and act out is because they are constantly harassed by police and undermined by

teachers and they react in a way that confirms stereotypes about them. These

reactions may manifest themselves in angry retorts and unwillingness to cooperate,

which get them in trouble. King has said before that his subjects will use the camera

for their own objectives. It appears that the subjects of this film want to show the

audience the difference between them and what the media portrays and show how

they are treated by society. He also discusses how it is difficult to not identify with

the role of the bad guy when people place that on you. The young boys have a lot of

pride for their area, and identify as “EMPz”, which is short for “Empringham”. The

name of the film even suggests how strong their bond with their home is by

declaring that they are “EMPz 4 Life”. By creating this bond, the boys then take on all

the signifiers that are placed on their geographical area, thus making people see

them as troublesome, young, black men who probably have guns and will kill

people.

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Alternatively, the media hid the children of Warrendale. Despite the

differences in the children’s relationship to their portrayals in the media, Allan King,

and the children, used the film to answer the questions Allan King had about what

makes “disturbed” children different from normal children. He had originally not

even wanted to make this film, until he questioned his own reasoning behind not

wanting to film them. In his notes on Warrendale, he quotes one of the children

saying, “When they put our pictures in the newspapers, they always black out our

faces so we can’t be seen. What’s so awful about us that we can’t be seen?”

(Browndale.net). Many reviews of the film, and one’s own experience, dictate how

hard aspects of the film are to watch. This is usually in reference to the long holding

sequence after the notification of the cook’s death. In the end, the feeling that the

audience has explains why “we” have a problem with the filming of disturbed

children. We hide them in an effort to protect ourselves from being uncomfortable.

By filming them, we expose ourselves to their issues. Perhaps we feel like we are

exploiting them by filming them but by thinking that, we say that the children

cannot think for themselves and are unaware of the camera. It is more comfortable

to watch police harass fourteen year-old boys. In 2007, one of the boys from the

film, Keyon Campbell, wall shot and killed as he left his house to start his mother’s

car. He was just sixteen. In an article in the Toronto Star, many of the people

interviewed are quoted as saying, “he was her only child” or, “just a sixteen year-old

boy”, “a young sixteen year-old boy”. It is clear that Allan King’s concern is that the

subjects of these two films are just children and that they need to be treated as

children. They should not be feared, they should be treated with love and given a

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chance, like the children at Warrendale are now getting. However, this treatment

needs to begin with adults.

In both films, there are adults who care for the children. Very few of the

actual mothers and fathers of the children are shown. In EMPz 4 Life, almost no

fathers appear. Perhaps it is because they are at work or because they are not

around. In Allan King’s own childhood, he had an absent father and was “forced to

live with other families while [his] mother struggled with her financial and

emotional crises” (Feldman 5). In Seth Feldman’s article on Allan King he notes that,

“his films would be populated by fathers, father figures, lost and forgotten old men”

(6). In both Warrendale and EMPz 4 Life there are different incarnations of father

figures for the children. In Warrendale, Walter, one of the adults in the institution,

acts as a father figure for many of the children as he cares for them and plays with

them. Peter Harcourt notes that Carol is upset because she feels that he does not

come by enough. In some cases, he is one of the only adult figures that the children

respond to. John Brown acts as an absent father figure as he controls the institution

of Warrendale from off the premises.

In EMPz 4 Life, Brian Henry, is all the young men’s father figure. He cares for

them, he drives them to extra-curriculars, to class, to math, and he makes sure they

get breakfast. It is clear that he does it because he cares and not because of money,

for he is having a hard enough time trying to secure funding to maintain the

program anyway. The audience sees many of the boys’ mothers in the film, but very

few of the boys fathers. Brian Henry’s presence enhances the lack of male figures

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these boys have to look up to. Brian brings one of the boys to a prison to meet one of

the neighbour’s older brothers who is in jail. The young boys in the film are

expected to learn from other older boys mistakes. They have very few positive

examples or role models to look up to or to keep them in check. Even Brian and Jam

Johnson, one of the men who he works with on Rose, have been in jail. When Brian is

talking to family of the brother in prison, they discuss how it would have a huge

impact on the boys to talk to a “real” gangster. The community needs to local leaders

to step forward and take action, it is unfortunate that these men have to go to jail

first to learn from their actions. However, maybe the only ways to help the kids is to

be able to understand what they are going through and to go through it with them.

A comment from an interview with John Brown, the director of Warrendale,

reflects the previous sentiment. The interviewer asked John Brown if “those who are

dealing with emotionally disturbed children be extraordinarily mentally well

themselves?” and John Brown responds with, “No, quite the contrary. What

motivation would there be for an extraordinarily mentally healthy person to work

with the mentally ill or emotionally disturbed?” (Interview with John Brown 11). In

the Black Habits article, “Getting Back on Track”, Brian’s partner Jam Johnson says,

“"If you're not in the kitchen cooking the food, how are you going to know what's in

the pot? […] If there were one of me and (Henry) in every neighbourhood, there

wouldn't be the huge problems we have"”. They believe it is important for people

like them, who have been behind bars and know what it is like to be in the boys’

situation to be the ones trying to help them get on track. This is just as John Brown

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sees it as a more therapeutic situation if the adults are working through issues as

well because then they can be honest with the children about emotions.

Brian and Jam’s sentiments seem to be backed up by the numerous

publications released about cleaning up the poor neighbourhoods of Toronto. Both

the Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force, the United Way, and the community

outreach and crime prevention programs put in place by the City of Toronto seem to

agree that having the community be involved in creating a stronger neighbourhood

ensures lasting effects and positive results. Unfortunately, even in the Toronto City

Summit Alliance paper of 2007, it is noted that, “there has been little support for

building local leadership or bridging partnerships until recently” (12). This is

reflected first hand in EMPz 4 Life as Brian Henry struggles to get any funding for the

Rose program.

The support for emotionally disturbed children took a while to gain traction. A

change needed to be made from believing these children need psychiatric control to

helping them find normality in their lives. The new idea was that children should

not be repressed and shut up; they need to be able to have a healthy place to express

themselves. The new mentality was that emotions were a good thing and that the

children should not be told otherwise. What John Brown was doing with the

children at Warrendale can be paralleled with what Brian Henry was trying to do

with the boys in his neighbourhood. Brian Henry wanted to make a change from the

world thinking these boys could never amount to anything and making them believe

that they could never amount to anything to proving to these boys that they could

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do whatever they want if they put their minds to it. He does this with John Mighton

and the JUMP program. Many of the boys make a shocking discovery that they have

an incredible talent for math. Both men believe that children need to be treated as

humans and respect and care for them, not just shove them with drugs if they act

out emotionally or tell them that they cannot amount to anything because they are

black.

In conclusion, these films are about childhoods that are not what society

deems to be normal. The films depict how the children’s geographical areas are

related to how the children are viewed and how it affects their situations. Allan King

and the subjects of the films use the camera to show a world that the media tends to

distort. Finally, every child has different relationships with adults and parental

figures. Allan King explores his own lack of a father figure and those affects on the

children in these films. Allan King places a lot of responsibility on the adults in these

films because it is them who the audience will blame if negative things happen to

any of the children and I believe that King is asking adults to take responsibility over

how they view these children when they watch these films. Adults are required for

local leadership in the communities to make them better places, it is adults who

control what is published in the media and it is adults who set examples for

children. Although this essay just looks at two of King’s films dealing with children,

one would be able to find the same similarities discussed in his other films with

children, including Come On Children (1973) and Who Has Seen The Wind (1977).

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Bibliography

Allan King on Empz 4 Life. Perf. Allan King. TVO. Web.

Brown, John. "Interview with John Brown, Director of Warrendale, 1953 - 1966."

Interview. MUBI. Apr. 2011. Web. <http://mubi.com/topics/interview-with-

john-brown-director-of-warrendale-the-institution>.

Doolittle, Robyn. "16-year-old Gunned down in Doorway of His Home." The Toronto

Star. 3 Dec. 2007. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.

<http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/281976>.

Dukoff, Carol, and Elaine Smith. "History I." Browndale. Web.

<http://www.browndale.net/id1.html>.

Ernst, Thom. "Talking to Allan King." Toro Magazine. 23 Dec. 2008. Web.

<http://www.toromagazine.com/legacy/ec7b279c-d7e1-11d4-59f5-

c8821c0d5162/index.html>.

Feldman, Seth, ed. Allan King: Filmmaker. Toronto: Toronto International Film

Festival, 2002. Print.

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Flack, Derek. "What the Suburbs Used to Look like around Toronto." BlogTO |

Toronto Blog. Fresh Daily, 8 Sept. 2011. Web.

<http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/09/what_the_suburbs_used_to_look_like_

around_toronto/>.

Harding, Bob, Shirley Hoy, and Frances Lankin. Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force.

Rep. Toronto: Government of Ontario, 2005. Print.

Kauffman, Stanley. "Children of Our Time." AllanKingFilms. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.

<http://www.allankingfilms.com/warrendale-review.html>.

King, Allan. "Allan King's Notes on Warrendale." Browndale. 17 June 2006. Web.

<http://www.browndale.net/id86.html>.

MacDonald, Moira. "Getting Back On Track." Black Habits. Web.

<http://www.blackhabits.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=

133>.

"Scarborough Community Names." Scarborough Historical Society. Web.

<http://www.scarboroughhistorical.com/local_history/scarborough_

community_names.htm>.

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Shamsie, Dr. J. A New Profession. Ed. Dr. Karen Gilmour-Barrett and Susan Pratt.

Reading 2. Mohawk College. Web.

<http://spin.mohawkcollege.ca/cyw/intro_to_cypractice/history_module/

readings/reading2/Reading2.htm>.

Thompson, Sara K., and Rosemary Gartner. Effective Crime Prevention in Toronto,

Canada. Publication. Un-Habitat.org, 2007. Print.

Toronto City Summit Alliance. Strong Neighbourhoods: Supporting the Call To Action.

Toronto, 2007. Print.

United Way of Greater Toronto, and The Canadian Council on Social Development,

comps. Poverty by Postal Code. Rep. Toronto, 2004. Print.

"Where Are We Safe?" Toronto Observer. Centennial College, 16 Dec. 2007. Web.

<http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2007/12/16/where-are-we-safe/>.

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