AllMovie

Janis Cole and her partner Holly Dale are two of Canada's most renowned documentary filmmakers. Their partnership began when they were students. Together they produced, directed and edited independent films. Their reputation is based on their unique, humanistic approach in making films about the odd people who live on society's fringe. Two of their early films, Cream Soda (1975), a student film, and Minimum Charge No Cover (1976) examine the seedy lives of small-time crooks in Toronto's red-light district. Their debut into widely released features was the 1977 film The Thin Blue Line, a personal and psychological look into the lives of criminally insane convicts in a maximum security prison.