Vancouver: u.s. broadcasters have been swift to embrace a Vancouver-made documentary that puts a new face on urban police.

Through a Blue Lens – produced by Veronica Mannix for the National Film Board – follows Vancouver’s Odd Squad, a group of dedicated city police officers who patrol the notorious Downtown Eastside and have developed close, first-name relationships with the area’s many drug addicts. The police have captured much of their interactions on videotape and take a distinctly compassionate (rather than punitive) approach to dealing with people hooked on cocaine and heroine.

The ethnographic documentary debuted on cbc in December. But it was a provocative review of the program in a November edition of the New York Times that stirred interest from the major American networks.

‘Within 48 hours the phones began to ring,’ says Graydon McCrea, the nfb’s Edmonton-based executive producer for the program. ‘I was talking to abc, cnn and cbs.’

The negotiations were unusually complicated. As the first caller, abc’s program 20/20 won the first right of refusal. But because the news magazine program only wanted a five-minute excerpt of Blue Lens, McCrea feared other efforts to get a full 52-minute airing in the u.s. would be dashed.

The concern was remedied quickly by hbo, which agreed to air Blue Lens nationally on its sister network Cinemax, providing abc promote the full airing. In what can be described as a marketing coup, says McCrea, 20/20 agreed to inform its 15 million viewers that they will be able to watch the full documentary on Cinemax’s Reel Life stream.

As a result, Through a Blue Lens will air on 20/20 on Feb. 24 and on Cinemax, a national pay cable network, on March 7.

While the nfb has been successful in getting other productions on u.s. airwaves in the past, the interest in Blue Lens has been unusual, says McCrea. Last year’s Oscar-nominated film Sunrise over Tiananmen Square also secured a u.s. airing on hbo’s other sister network, Signature.

‘It was rather overwhelming,’ he says, reflecting on the interest. ‘I’ve never been involved in a project that has generated this kind of interest. This is an attractive sale for us and a wonderful opportunity to bring it to a massive audience.’

Nancy Abraham, vp of original documentary programming at hbo, says Blue Lens was an easy buy because it told a strong story. ‘Even though the film takes place in Vancouver, the characters and the story are universal,’ she says. ‘We thought audiences would be riveted.’

Of special appeal to the u.s. broadcasters, says Abraham, is the new approach to policing and the fact that it has had positive effect. Several of the addicts featured in the documentary are now in recovery.

Rather than hosting a public forum on the issues like the cbc, hbo will link its website to information about the Odd Squad.

Cinemax’s Reel Life has also aired other Canadian documentaries including The Selling of Innocents (Associated Producers) and Crimes of Honour (Bishari Film Productions), which will also air in February.

As for 20/20, the news magazine sent two film crews and a correspondent to Vancouver earlier this month to do a making-of-style segment. According to McCrea, the u.s. program will weave its coverage around a five-minute excerpt.

Blue Lens was made for about $240,000, says McCrea. While sales figures have not been divulged, the u.s. purchases will contribute significantly to recovering costs, he adds.

McCrea says the nfb is in development with a spin-off of the documentary that would be shown in classrooms as a cautionary tale against drug use.