Pawnbroker David Woolfson inside his Edmonton shop in a scene from Broke. (ID Productions)

Edmonton's annual documentary festival opens Thursday with Broke, a film that paints a vibrant picture of life inside a pawnshop.

It's the first time an Edmonton filmmaker has opened the Global Visions Festival.

Writer-director Rosie Dransfeld spent several months filming inside the inner-city pawnshop owned by David Woolfson, capturing a colourful array of characters who use the "bank of last resort."

They're pawning their jewellery or their driver's licence to get out of a financial jam, but they're in a place where they feel at home. Dransfeld captures it all, cinema-verité style.

Writer, director and producer Rosie Dransfeld, of Edmonton, opens the Global Visions Film Festival with Broke. (ID Productions)

"What I learned in this pawnshop was that a lot of them really showed amazing survival skills and wit and they have a black humour," Dransfeld said in an interview with Q, CBC's cultural affairs show, on Tuesday.

"This film in a lot of places is very funny, too, and it's very entertaining so it's not just about the downtrodden."

Finding Woolfson, a 75-year-old South African who insults his customers but also listens to their stories, was a coup, she said.

"What appealed to me was on one hand it's a neighbourhood store and people are coming in there 16 or 17 years something like that … and then I was really drawn to David as a character because he's very complex with a lot of layers and he's really torn in how he handles all of this," she said.

Woolfson admits he insults his customers and drives a hard bargain, but he also treats them with respect.

"I had to do something when I came to Canada. It was a business. I didn't particularly go into it because I wanted to, but it was something to do," he told Q.

"It's not a question of being hard. When you pawn something you have to know that the person is not coming back and you're eventually going to have sell it and the less you pay for it, the easier it's going to be to sell."

Dransfeld's camera gets to know several of Woolfson's customers, but singles out his relationship with his unpaid assistant, Chris Hoard, an ex-con with a history of childhood abuse.

"He was just a customer and I listened to his story and he has a horrendous story to tell," Woolfson said of Hoard. "He's a tremendously intelligent guy and he hung around. You couldn't get rid of him. I try to guide him a bit but I don't know how well I succeeded."

Fascinating assistant

Dransfeld said she found Hoard so fascinating she plans to make her next documentary about him.

Broke was an official selection at this year's Hot Docs festival in Toronto and played at the Calgary and Vancouver international film festivals.

Dransfeld said audiences really warmed to the stories, even though many of them had never previously set foot inside a pawnshop.

"It's a little bit hypnotic, people are drawn into this world and they feel they stayed for half a year — that they know the shop and the neighbourhood," she said.

"What I'm hoping for is that just with meeting them and learning about their story and the things they do that you will on some level fall in love with them and you will be kinder."

As for Woolfson, he admits that at 75 he wouldn't mind finding a buyer for the shop.

"Sure I have a good life, but my customers love me. Really they do. Why do they keep coming back if I insult them … A lot of them tell me that they just wouldn't go anywhere else because they believe that I'm honest, and I am and they like doing business with me."

Global Visions runs Nov. 5-8 in Edmonton.