This film was originally planned as a one-hour drama for the CBC's For the Record, series but was expanded into a feature while it was being shot cinéma vérité-style on the streets of Toronto between October 11 and October 27, 1977.
It concerns the search for a runaway (Laurie Brown) by her father (Don Francks), an aging hippy who is coerced to do so by a member of the RCMP drug squad (Len Cariou).
Exploring the darker side of the ‘flower power’ generation, Drying Up the Streets mixes documentary realism with stylized set pieces.
[1][2] It's one of director Robin Spry’s finest films; however, it never received theatrical distribution and was eventually aired on the CBC in 1979 to good notices.
This article related to a Canadian TV movie is a stub.