Filmmakers spent nine months filming Lost in the Struggle

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The way Paul Nguyen sees it, viewers of Lost in the Struggle, a CBC Fifth Estate documentary that followed the lives of three young men living in the Jane Street and Finch Avenue neighbourhood last year, will either applaud the main characters for trying to turn their lives around or conclude the negative media portrayal depicting the community as crime ridden and full of gangbangers is true.

For nine months, Nguyen and Mark Simms, two filmmakers who run the website www.jane-finch.com, followed Phong Nguyen (Chuckie Akenz), Andrew Burnett (Burnz) and Albi Aziz (Freshy) as they each told their personal stories of struggle.

"The Fifth Estate called and told me what they wanted to do but they didn't have access (into the neighbourhood)," Nguyen said. "I had to develop a story and find the characters. Mark and I shot everything with the equipment they gave us. We shot 160 tapes over nine months."

The footage was then handed over to CBC, which edited the tapes for the Oct. 4, 2006 airing of Lost in the Struggle.

"A lot of the stuff we filmed wasn't aired," Nguyen said, using the example of a marijuana grow house they visited. "Everything that's been done about Jane and Finch has been from outsiders' views. This was done on the inside and it showcases reality. If people want to see it as negative, they will see it that way."

Nguyen said he received mixed feedback after Lost in the Struggle aired, with people from outside the area wanting to help the three young men and rumblings from residents on the inside.

"There were a few e-mails that were kind of negative," he said, adding Phong Nguyen continues to work on his music career as a rapper, Aziz is in university and Burnett has his "issues". "If I was going to do a Care Bear thing nothing would change. People need to think about the problems."

Nguyen recently received news that Lost in the Struggle is up for two Gemini Awards, for best direction in a news information program or series and best picture editing in a information program or series. The award show will be held Oct. 28 in Regina, Sask.

"I'm excited," Nguyen said. "I can add it to my resume."

Nguyen said the documentary pushed him and Simms into the role of community spokespeople, a title they didn't particularly want.

"It wasn't our aim to be spokespeople for the neighbourhood," he said. "It's not what we wanted to do. But it did help bolster our website."

Nguyen, a graduate of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute, acknowledged there are problems in the North York neighbourhood and change is paramount.

"It's like this place is frozen in time," he said. "People from here must leave Jane and Finch for a while to see what else is out there. When I make it big, I want to give back."