“I wanted my freedom,” states TVO’s Hot Doc subject Eric “Roach” Denis on why he chose to live in the Montreal and Toronto streets, squeegeeing for an income. He goes on to say that this freedom was the ultimate goal, since it offered him a way out of the emotional prison of parental neglect and the real-life juvenile delinquent halls that peppered his youth. It’s interesting to note that in the press releases attached to this video, he is referred to only by his street name, a parasite no less, effectively suppressing his humanity and continuing his facelessness.
The cinematography on this production mirrors the life on the streets: fast-paced, disconnected, hazy and upsetting. Indeed, most of this film is taken from the perspective of uneasy camera handling. It’s enough to make you visually nauseous—which is exactly the point. That being said, I do not go in for obvious attempts to pull at my heartstrings and evoke fear and pity for a given protagonist. However, I found myself slightly enamoured by the chipped-tooth, mangy-faced hero of this documentary.
But it was not the scene of him licking off the droplet of blood after shooting up coke that moved me. Nor was it the random acts of assault he endured at the hands of local Montrealers and Torontonians alike. And I barely registered an emotional reaction when he sat in a stoned stupor lamenting his loveless childhood and, drowsily raising his weakened fist, proclaimed his squeegee brethren to be his true family because they actually acknowledged his birthday by baking him a cake.
The moment that nailed me to his struggles and his life came quite unexpectedly. Despite his ragged appearance and his frequent tossing of “tabernac,” it was the subtle moments of quiet when he reflected on his life and uttered sudden lines of wisdom at the most inopportune times.
For example, Denis returns home for a short while to recuperate after taking a bottle in the face squeegeeing on Maisonneuve. We witness him penguin-shuffle across the thick and unforgiving Quebec ice fields in ice-fishing trousers, waiting impatiently for a fish to bite the pencil-thin, sardine-baited line. He gives a shout over his shoulder: “I’m the fish, no?” Baited and hooked by a system that offers him no protection under its laws, he is certainly being made a meal of by our government’s apathy.
This is what motivates my compassion for his character: the frustration of it all. I am moved by the fact that he literally resides in a place of powerlessness. He is outlawed by the city, his squats burned by the OPP, and yet somehow they want him to find dignity while the freedom from pain he desires so earnestly eludes him at every turn.
TVO airs the North American premiere of Hot Doc: The View From Here S.P.I.T. (Squeegee Punks In Traffic) on Wednesday, March 20 at 10:00 p.m.
