Renowned documentarian Allan King focuses his lens on the prejudice, hope and despair swirling around four young men from Toronto’s Malvern area. The teens — Christopher (aka C-Jewlz), Jordan, Sadiki and Jivon — have a mentor in Brian Henry, who has had some run-ins with the law but now tirelessly volunteers his time and energy to ensure that others don’t go down the same path. Displaying his trademark assured, cinéma-vérité style, EMPz 4 Life (EMPz is slang for Empringham, the area of Malvern where the boys are from) is a challenging and thought-provoking work from a master filmmaker at the top of his game. King’s meditative approach offers no easy answers or solutions to the issues — without narration or interview, King allows his subjects’ actions to reveal the complexity of their world.

Screenings of this film are dedicated to the memory of Keyon Campbell (1991 – 2007).