Halifax actor-director highlights housing crisis in new movie
Posted Feb 18, 2026 10:41:34 AM.
Last Updated Feb 18, 2026 11:49:30 AM.
An acclaimed Halifax filmmaker is hoping to highlight how homelessness can impact Atlantic Canadians of all stripes.
What We Dreamed of Then is a drama about a financially struggling father who is trying to parent his estranged child, while making ends meet and living in his van.
According to actor-director Taylor Olson, the inspiration for the film came from witnessing people experiencing houselessness in Halifax.
“There were many things that inspired this film, but that was one of them,” says Olson, noting he wanted to ensure the movie had a first-hand approach when it came to the experience of homelessness. “It was important after going into the encampments during my research or talking to people who were houseless or living in cars and such, to have them be part of the impact of the film.”
While Olson insists that What We Dreamed of Then is more of an intimate character study than a “message movie,” he admits he did want to display how homelessness is pervasive across all strata of the community.
“The goal is to create empathy but also to highlight how many of us actually are close to a situation like this. It only takes so many things gone wrong without enough of a support system to end up in this position,” he said. “I (also) think we all have, in one way or another, that connection to our family or to families that have fallen apart or close friends whose families have fallen apart, and so the themes of that are pretty universal.”
A multiple Canadian Screen Award nominee and ACTRA Award winner, Olson will be hosting a special screening of What We Dreamed of Them on Friday, where, following the movie, audiences can take part in a Q&A with cast members as well as representatives from the Truro Housing Commission, the United Way of Maritimes, among others.
“I’m hoping people come out, check out the film and then stay for the Q&A to get the professionals’ insights on the experiences of the character in the movie,” says Olson. “Like I said before, the goal is to create empathy but also to highlight how many of us are so close to a situation like this.”
What We Dreamed of Then will screen at 7 p.m. at Cineplex Park Lane Cinemas, and attendees are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food donation to the movie.
Unsheltered homelessness in HRM
A Point-in-Time Count snapshotted 1,150 people experiencing homelessness in Halifax Regional Municipality, including 17 per cent who were unsheltered.
A new report with data collected in October showcases that several people are sleeping outside in the municipality as winter approaches. According to the numbers provided by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia (AHA), 197 people were living in encampments, vehicles or other unsheltered locations.
“Homelessness is more than just what we see,” Michael Kablan, Executive Director of AHA, told The Todd Veinotte Show. “It’s more than just the encampments (or) the people in the woods. The definition of homelessness is in the name: you have no home.”
