Thinking Beyond the Market is a full length documentary by Dr Brian Doucet, Associate Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo.

This film takes you across Canada to learn about policies, programs and projects that are already happening and already having a positive impact on addressing the housing crisis. From using public land to build non-market housing in Kitchener and Whistler, and inspiring Indigenous-led projects in Vancouver, to strong tenant protections and rent control in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, the examples featured in this film demonstrate how many important solutions are making a difference in communities big and small! The film features interviews with more than 30 planners, policymakers, politicians, developers, residents and housing advocates from coast to coast. The film inspires and challenges us to think about both the root causes of the housing crisis and transformative solutions.

Dr Brian Doucet is an author, filmmaker, photographer, researcher, award-winning teacher and Associate Professor in Planning at the University of Waterloo. His work critically examines housing, gentrification, displacement, transportation and neighbourhood change. Born and raised in Toronto, he lived in the Netherlands from 2004 – 2017, where he received his PhD in geography from Utrecht University in 2010. Since returning to Canada in 2017, he has held a Canada Research Chair, been awarded six major SSHRC research grants and was a 2025 winner of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance Teaching Excellence Award. He is the co-author of the award-nominated book, Streetcars and the Shifting Geographies of Toronto: a visual analysis of change, and a co-editor of the four volume book series Global Reflections on COVID-19 and Urban Inequalities.

For more on Dr Doucet’s research, including links to some of the reports and articles informing this film, visit https://uwaterloo.ca/planning/profiles/brian-doucet

Dr Doucet is a frequent commentator in the media. You can read is articles in The Conversation here: https://theconversation.com/profiles/brian-doucet-1022733

Director Statement

Thinking Beyond the Market: a film about genuinely affordable housing is the culmination of years of research into why we are in a housing crisis and what we can do about it. It draws on my own work on displacement, gentrification and housing precarity in cities across the country, as well as important findings, evidence and examples that get to the root causes of the housing problem.

As an academic researcher and one of Canada’s leading experts on housing, it’s not enough to simply write articles that only my colleagues in a narrow field of inquiry will ever read. I’ve long worked to bring my academic research into broader public, political, planning and policy conversations. The ability to make a documentary film about housing is the ultimate way to bridge the ever-increasing divide between university scholarship and the people who make, shape and experience cities. I hope this film enhances existing conversations and begins new ones in communities across Canada and beyond.

Thinking Beyond the Market: a film about genuinely affordable housing

Written, directed and narrated by Brian Doucet

Produced by George Liu

Music by Dave Mansell

Filming by George Liu, Brian Doucet, Jedwin Mok

Funding provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council & Hamilton Community Foundation

French translation by Karine Barbas

Running time 86 minutes

Language English with English or French subtitles

More information about screenings and how to view the film here soon!