Thank you snowsk8steez. I think your first post is a really important contribution, and in return, I give you my fist post to this forum.
Watching your film, and also reading the posts at http://www.partyvibe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21553 make me feel quite emotional.
I have never taken H. Nor have I ever entertained any curiosity about it. But in my 10+ years of taking recreational drugs I have lost to it 2 people whose closeness to me waxed and waned (as they never stayed in one place, emotionally or geographically for long) but both of which I grew to know, understand and love and who very much became part of my extended family. This was only possible, because I never held any prejudice towards the heroin – if I had, I would only have known the heroin and not the person underneath. The intelligent, kind, considerate, self-conscious, loving people that they were. The part of your film where Bruce talks about how intelligent most users are I found particularly poignant.
I come across many people in my life who are ignorant to the underlying causes of serious drug addictions, ignorant to the underlying causes of homelessness and ignorant to the ways in which political and social systems in this country keep addicts addicted and keep homeless people homeless. And despite their ignorance, despite perhaps their personal understanding and experiences of how other forms of addiction can affect lives, they hold very deep-set prejudices towards the people involved in these social experiences.
I know perhaps this is liberal ideology, but I think one of the most important things that could happen in today’s society would be for the general public to reach a point of understanding that anyone can find themselves using. Anyone can find themselves destitute, removed from their social networks and without a home. That there is always a story behind these resultant symptoms. That these things happen to people who are intelligent, are capable, are normal, every-day people. And that they can be over-come.
And so, I find your film very relevant to my life. Very relevant to what I believe. And I hope that many people view it and take something from it that is relevant to them and their lives.
As General Lighting posts here, [URL=”http://http://www.partyvibe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=767″%5Dhttp://www.partyvibe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=767%5B/URL%5D, we cannot leave it down to centralised governments to solve these problems for us. I think these responsibilities come down each and every one of us, and that all it takes for us to bear this responsibility is to take the time to understand – from this point on, acting to help resolve becomes relatively easy.
However, and please don’t take this as a criticism, I would say that I hope that not too many young people watch this film. I think for the message to hit home, the viewer does need to be able to contextualise the content in a way that only mature/experienced minds can. Otherwise there is maybe a danger of desensitisation. Perhaps in later films, you could also illustrate the sacrifices in life-style your subject has had to make and what he/she has to go through each and every day which I think can be equally shocking, if not more so.
Keep up the good work.
peace and love x
