In Unloved, filmmaker Barri Cohen tells the mystery of what happened to her two half-brothers, Alfie and Louis, who were sent away in the 1950’s as small children to a place all too common in developed nations in the 20th century: an institution that warehoused children deemed intellectually disabled. In Unloved, that place was Canada’s own Ontario Hospital School in Orillia, one of many such institutions across North America that operated with little oversight, care or love. In 2010 it became the subject of a ground-breaking class action lawsuit for an extensive list of gross abuses and neglect. Cohen’s family narrative unfurls alongside the testimonies of the institution’s survivors and class action litigants while underscoring an urgent, ever-present question: why do we repeatedly dehumanize the most vulnerable amongst us?
Barri Cohen is a veteran award-winning producer, director, writer, mentor and cultural, disability, and health social justice activist based in Toronto. She's a passionate enabler and mentor to diverse talent, and a co-founding member of Hot Docs International Documentary Festival. She's past National Chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada, and past Publisher/editor of Point of View Magazine -on the art and business of documentary culture.
