Shot over the course of five years, Hugh Gibson’s award-winning documentary examines the lives of habitual drug users at an urban health center staffed by both former and current users. The Stairs takes us inside the Regent Park Community Health Centre, focusing on three current staff members: the loquacious, seemingly tireless Marty, who was so addicted at one point that, after being shot in a deal that went south, he stopped for a hit before going to the hospital; Roxanne, a former sex worker whose tales of life in the trade are beyond harrowing; and Greg, a biracial child of the 1960s consumed with a long-delayed legal case hinging on a police officer’s use of excessive force.
