Perrier, Powers get crackin'

Toronto - Heads turned and, in some cases, went light at a recent screening of Cracked Not Broken, a hard-hitting doc about the life of an on-again-off-again crack addict.

"Three grown men fell to the floor," says producer Tom Powers, with a whiff of pride, speaking shortly after the Nov. 14 screening in Toronto.

The one-hour self-financed film focuses on the experiences of a 38-year-old prostitute, Lisa, and her lifelong battle with addiction. It consists mainly of a 25-minute interview shot in a hotel room by director and friend Paul Perrier (Marymount Again).

The hook, says Powers, is her intelligence, honesty and upper-class pedigree. Lisa comes from a well-to-do Toronto family and once had a promising career on Bay Street.

"You get so much empathy for this woman," he says. "She's smart, funny. She's the girl next door. And she's absolutely dead honest about how she got there."

Perrier and Powers are shopping for a broadcast deal and took Cracked to the recent doc market in Amsterdam. Powers is also coproducing the road trip doc Independent America with former NBC reporter Hanson Hosein, about the rise and sprawl of chain stores. Sean Davidson