Description: Pine Street Inn guests. Forlorn white and black homeless men crowded on benches, smoking, talking, joking, eating. Exterior Pine Street Inn sign with snow. Pam Bullard interviews shelter director Paul Sullivan on: adversity the men face in winter weather; lack of shelter for women; increase in volunteers and food services. Police escort man into inn. Bullard and Sullivan discuss the shelter's Christmas celebrations, while they shoot cutaways. Bullard does several takes of reporter standup and voice over. Cars and buses driving on snow covered roads. Man shoveling sidewalk. Bullard makes a snow angel.
Description: B-roll of the site of a proposed multilevel garage for Quincy Market, which is currently a parking lot between Haymarket and the Expressway. Close-ups on cars in the parking lot. Several takes of reporter standup on the Boston Redevelopment Authority's plans. Exteriors of Faneuil Hall before North Market was developed. Several takes of another portion of reporter standup.
Description: Norway rats, bred in lab, in glass containers lined with wood shavings. Shiny dark brown-gray fur. One cleans and grooms self. They are kept for the purpose of testing rat poisons by public health department. Man pours vats of grain into mixer. Barrels labelled “poison.” Pail labelled “pest control chemicals.” Shelves stocked with sugar, vegetable oil, peanut butter, nutmeg, pet food. Posters explain how to avoid attracting rats.
Description: Testing clams for effects of red tide. Samples in plastic bag collected from Gloucester. Shells pried open with knife, innards scraped out, rinsed in sieve, pureed in blender, poured into beaker, weighed on balance scale, diluted with acid, placed on burner, transferred to vial, placed in centrifuge. Chart and map of shellfish sampling areas on North Shore for red tide measurement.
Description: Interview with Richard Rowland, director of Massachusetts Association of Elder Americans, on state funding for homemaker services to assist senior citizens with housekeeping and errands and help them stay out of nursing homes.
Description: Interviews with three teenage runaways at Project Place, including one girl who was sexually abused by her father and who will go into foster care. Shot in shadow.