East Hastings Pharmacy (2012)

Bourges documents the daily routine of a typical pharmacy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, where most clients are on a treatment that requires taking daily doses of methadone witnessed by the pharmacist. The architecture of the space is as much a character as the population which passes through it, with borders of glass between the street and the pharmacy and then between the pharmacist and her clients. The tension of the situation and the struggles on both sides of the glass are punctuated with moments of good humour and camaraderie.