The Things I Cannot Change

This film is considered to be the forerunner of the NFB's Challenge for Change Program. It is a look at a family in trouble, seen from the inside. There is the trouble with the police, the begging for stale bread at the convent, the birth of another child, and the father who explains his family's predicament. Although filmed in Montréal, this is the anatomy of poverty as it occurs in North America, seen by a camera that became part of the family's life for several weeks. A sequel to this film was made in 1986, under the title Courage to Change, showing what happened to the Bailey family 18 years later.