that it was children's fiction about cats, and saw little use of it. Around the same time, Schuyler, who was struggling to find films to show her class, screened a National Film Board of Canada film about a young girl's struggles with an alcoholic father. During a subsequent discussion, Schuyler noticed one of the students moving between first and third person, indicating to Schuyler that the student likely lived in a alcoholic household. After getting counselling for the student, Schuyler became inspired to adapt Ida into a film. Before leaving, Schuyler sought legal advice from Stephen Stohn, a young entertainment lawyer who had recently graduated from law school, and who would eventually become her producing partner and husband. Stohn recalled in his 2018 memoir Whatever It Takes that he advised Schuyler that being out of print, buying the rights to the book on her own would be "relatively straightforward", and that involving lawyers would make the process "unnecessarily complicated". Stohn instead gave Schuyler a boilerplate form for permission to take with her to New York. Schuyler purchased the rights for $200. The feline characters were changed into human children, and the story was also largely repurposed. The film featured production techniques that Schuyler and Kit Hood felt were missing from children's programming: it was shot in a cinéma vérité style, with handheld camera work and entirely on-location shooting. Mackey offered his home, 98 De Grassi Street, as a filming location. Legacy After three more annual specials, the films were turned into the series The Kids of Degrassi Street in 1982. It is retroactively considered the first entry in the franchise. Bibliography References Notes Sources External links 1974 books 1979 films Canadian drama short films Degrassi (franchise) Films based on children's books 1970s English-language films 1970s Canadian films