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From three weeks of camera observation of the real life of the Bailey family in Montreal, this film shows that there is far more to living in poverty than most people have hitherto realized.
Except for the presence of the camera and the film-makers, there is nothing about the day to day events at the Baileys' shown in the film that is different from what usually happens to them.
For Mrs. Bailey the children's trips for stale bread to a neighborhood church, her constant pregnancies, her husband's frequent battles with police and welfare workers (flunkies), is the normal pattern of their life. These are things she now feels nothing can change—"the things I cannot change".
The Baileys are people Hke other people. The traditional marks of poverty are not too noticeable. The children are clean and relatively well dressed, the home is not lacking in the familiar essentials. The impoverishment is in pride and self-respect, in wants that show only in a word or look.
Made without comment other than what the Baileys say or what other people—social workers, police, etc., say to the Baileys, this film says more about poverty in Canada today than has ever been said before.