Film: Warrendale

Written and directed by Allan King
1967 Canada

Allan King's Warrendale takes a brutally honest and uncompromising look into the lives of emotionally disturbed children and a trained staff, who together, deal with day to day existence and adversities, in a treatment center called Warrendale. What the audience sees is far more emotionally moving and untamed than what is usually associated with documentaries that attempt to show the real lives of the troubled amongst us.


One of Warrendale’s many appeals is the truthful approach it uses to communicate with and the feeling of intimacy it achieves. Instead of a voice over telling the audience what to think or how to feel, it abandons all manipulative film tactics and instead it tries to show us what indeed is, with as little intrusion as possible.


King’s film crew gained the trust of their subjects by spending time with them before and after takes, doing day to day activities and using small hand held cameras, successfully serving the film’s observational agenda. Critics argue that no intrusion, zero intervention and complete neutrality are impossible for camera and crew but Warrendale comes so convincingly close to achieving just that, that the viewers are forgiven if they indeed forget that they are watching a film, with all its technical intricacies. Such is the power and impact of the film’s hard hitting observation.
Warrendale, a non-scripted, cinéma vérité at its heart-wrenching finest, will make you feel uneasy, it might shock and disturb you but it is a truthful testament to love, compassion and tolerance as you are ever likely to see in the film medium. If Warrendale does not move you, nothing will.