THE FILM
Searching for Home follows Sonia, Devin, and Anthony, three young people participating in the Transitioning Youth Out of Homelessness study. Set amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the film delves into the lives of these young people as they candidly share their stories about housing, relationships, school and family.
Though all three are exiting homelessness, their stories are anything but cookie-cutter. Alone at 16, Sonia arrived as a refugee in Canada and immediately entered the shelter system. Now, she’s in college pursuing a practical nursing diploma. Devin is a young artist and university student living on his own after leaving a challenging home situation. Grappling with anxiety and depression, Devin is using his art to heal. Anthony has spent most of his life in foster care, group homes, and shelters. Now, he’s choosing his own path, living in an apartment with his partner and dog.
Searching for Home is an intimate portrayal of young people on the margins, offering a unique glimpse into their lives during a challenging time. While not shying away from the precarity of their situations, the film depicts the strength, tenacity, and wisdom of its three protagonists.
FILM Team
Naomi Thulien
Dr. Naomi Thulien is a nurse practitioner and researcher committed to tackling the social structural inequities that cause and perpetuate youth homelessness.
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Dr. Thulien is a scientist with MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. She is an Assistant Professor (Status-Only) at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health and an Academic Fellow with the University of Toronto’s Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research.
Dr. Thulien’s program of research focuses on understanding how to facilitate meaningful social and economic inclusion for young people who have experienced homelessness. She has a particular interest in critical social theory and community-based research methodology.
In May 2021, Dr. Thulien co-founded Breakwater Foundation – a non-profit organization that provides rent subsidies, education bursaries, and primary health care to young women who have experienced homelessness. Dr. Thulien practices clinically at the Breakwater Foundation clinic and Covenant House Toronto – Canada’s largest agency for young people with current and past experiences of homelessness and sex trafficking.
Catie Lamer
Catie Lamer is a Toronto based filmmaker and producer. Working across documentary and narrative, her passion is in telling stories that celebrate, honour and uplift voices that too often go unheard.
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She has produced and directed for networks including CTV, The CBC, The History Channel, Discovery, YTV, Viceland and TVO. In 2016/17 she was a co-producer on the award winning Viceland series, RISE (Sundance Film Festival, Special Events Program; Best Documentary Series, Yorkton Film Festival; Best Documentary Program, Canadian Screen Awards) and producer of Nuuca (TIFF ‘17, Sundance ‘18, Berlinale ’18, shortlisted for an IDA Documentary Award).
In 2018, with Alibi Entertainment, she produced, directed and wrote Northern Gold, a limited-run documentary series for TVO. In 2019-2020, with Alibi Entertainment, she directed and produced Accidental Wilderness: The Leslie Street Spit, a documentary for the CBC’s Nature of Things and line produced Inconvenient Indian for the NFB and 90th Parallel Productions (TIFF ’20, winner of TIFF’s Best Canadian Film and People’s Choice Award for Documentary). In 2020-2021, she directed UFO Town, a CBC POV Documentary. With 90th Parallel Productions and TVO, she is currently directing and producing her first feature documentary, The Long Weekend. Through her own company, Catie is producing six digital nature shorts for the CBC and is completing a companion documentary to the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions’ Transitioning Youth Out of Homelessness Study.
Jen Recknagel
Jen Recknagel combines a background in human-centred design and systems thinking to address complex challenges at the intersection of health and its social determinants.
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Experienced with researching and executing a variety of service design projects, she is currently the Senior Design Lead at UHN OpenLab, a health innovation lab based out of Toronto General Hospital. Her work is focused on finding creative solutions to transform the way health care is delivered and experienced, and uses storytelling as a mechanism to build empathy, humanize data and bring policymakers closer to the frontlines of care.
Jen is currently working on an innovation program to reimagine the way seniors are supported to age in place, with a focus on older adult empowerment and community mobilization. She was the co-founder of The Local, an award-winning magazine focused on urban health issues in Toronto. In her previous work life, Jen was a documentary film producer, and her work has appeared on CBC, Sundance Channel and ARTE.
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