Over brunch one morning in 2007, Philip Maglieri and Laura Rogers were complaining about the noise in the alley below their window the previous night. Partiers from a nearby club had kept them up, and it wasn't the first time. In fact, the action in the alley had been pretty consistent for as long as they could remember. "It'd be cool to put some cameras in there to see what actually happens," they mused. And The Alley was born.

Soon the cameras not only captured increasingly shocking footage, but they also captured the fact that this alley is a critical pedestrian artery for people in the area. The importance of this throughway is clear, but then why has it been left to fall into such a serious state of disrepair? Why are people content to walk by urine, feces, garbage and drug paraphernalia? If no one seems to own this space, who is responsible for it?

The Alley creates a portrait of an orphaned space in downtown Toronto. The film uses security camera footage collected over two years and combines it with footage that demonstrates the unconventional beauty of the urban landscape. The film also consults John Gladki an urban planner, Jason Tomlinson, a police officer, Adam Vaughan, a city councilor, Donna Harrow, the director of a nearby community center, Paul Magder, a neighbour, and numerous people, including school children, who regularly use the alley.

In this film you'll see street life as you've never seen it. You'll see the things so-called normal people do when they think no one's watching. And you'll see the effect that this behaviour has on the people who live with this alley as part their every day environment.