We are moving stories

“Hank, our protagonist, is marooned on an island of internal suffering. He’s stranded in a literal and metaphorical desert, a place where his only companions are the thoughts that drive him to continue his own self-destruction. He can’t reconcile the things he’s done, and has no one to turn to other than the person who he’s now being forced to murder. The same person who is his ticket to understanding how to exercise self-compassion.”

““Under Water” was made to save someone’s life.

VALERY: I lost three close friends to drugs and alcohol at an early age, and was inspired to share this message, make a difference, and be a positive influence to other young adults.

BRYAN: The film is based on my real life experiences. I decided to make a positive change in this life. Aware that I was lucky to survive my struggles, I wanted to be a voice of inspiration and change for others..”

“Many of us can feel trapped in our lives or jobs and so I used a Catholic priest to explore these themes. He is lonely, restricted and suppressed in his movements and thinking and he is abusing drugs to numb his pain. We are introduced to him at a tipping point in his life where it’s too late to change his fate but maybe we can learn something about ourselves from his tragedy.”

“Conversations about the film almost always end up in the same corner. Of course the conversation is dominated by the level of Ice use in the community but it soon turns to people examining their own experiences and how a family friend, girl friend, boy friend or anybody else they know became addicted to the drug and where they are at now. ”

“Too many were so overwhelmed by economic, medical and social challenges that they became addicted to prescription opioids and street drugs which made them incapable of basic reasoning. Like our protagonist, they came to ‘the pool’ of participation in American civic, political and cultural society with a background that wasn’t fully formed, and it made them weak and colorless. ”

“Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

To raise awareness about the opioid epidemic and explore a family torn apart by addiction.”

“I lost my beloved young nephew Paul to an accidental overdose in 2016. This immediately turned my life upside down and I decided to dedicate all of my resources to investigating the sources of the opioid epidemic in the US. I felt that this epidemic was growing in the shadows and affecting millions of people, but there was still very little media attention focusing on this crisis, a crisis that showed no signs of abating.”

“Yael Luttwak and I heard about Friends of Guest House from a friend Melissa Goldman Davidson who teaches yoga at the program. She told us that this class had become one of the highlights of her week, and she invited us to come, and meet these intelligent, funny women for ourselves. We were immediately drawn to the women’s personal stories because they are representative of millions of women who are struggling with opioid addiction. We wanted to make the film to break down the biases and misinformed opinions that people have around those who struggle with addiction.”

“The claims of this extraordinary, non-pharmaceutical drug addiction treatment (NET) are crazy - it promises to “bring anyone off any drug of addiction in 5-7 days with minimum (if any) discomfort, and with no further cravings from then on!” After doing smaller, surprisingly positive, T.V. documentary work on this story, I realised that a larger, stronger and more robust Feature Documentary needed to be made - to REALLY see if this thing worked or not. We would show the results either way - good or bad - but if it DID work as claimed, it would certainly be the biggest game-changer in addiction history, and tens of thousands of lives would be saved. ”

“I wrote this script from raw personal experiences of rehab, breakdown, and the restorative love of friendship. Honoring a long tradition of artists (whom I admire), I tried to be specific with the experiences here, so that it might just touch the universality within each of us of shame, fear, connection, and ultimately: healing.”

“Horror is a fitting genre to explore the universal themes of struggle, pain, and love. Addiction is a serious illness, and although we explore it in a creative way, I wanted to treat it with the gravity and respect the topic deserves. I’ve been close to many people struggling with addiction. In sobriety meetings, they talk about the inner “addict” and I always wondered how that would physically manifest itself. What does the “addict” look like? What does it want? What lengths will it go to get what it wants? What choices will it make?”

“At its root, I wanted to make a project that looked at where the American Dream failed, and why mid-sized post-industrial cities across the country most often retain the highest levels of poverty, crime and drug addiction.”

“I don’t automatically consider my sobriety permanent. I would be a fool to do so. As I explore and state in my film, this is a daily fight that I will have for the rest of my life. And the minute I think I have become so strong that I can slack a little, is the day I could very well fall right back into it. If I do, that’s not the end of my story; but I don’t want to go there. I guess my point is I know 3-years of sobriety is barely anything in relation to a lifetime. I don’t pretend to have all the answers or believe I am any better than anyone else. My film is not like that. I don’t preach, push facts,”

“This story, whether you’ve lived the topic, been with people through it, or have no experience with it, will give you a gripping new perspective. this film isn’t cute, it’s not romantic, it’s real. If you want to see something real then I would watch this film.”

“Personally we shot GRACE in the diner I worked in my hometown my first year clean. So it’s a real coming of full circle. Hometown girl overcomes against all odds. Universally it’s the age-old struggle between light and dark. Do we give in or do we overcome no matter what obstacles may be in our way?”

“Resilience is a theme of this film, how people with help can overcome all types of obstacles. This film shows how those who helped Julie-Anne made such a difference in her fight back. This is why now Julie-Anne tries to help others.”

“I was inspired by my daughter’s journey into addiction, eating disorder and her recovery. It was originally a cleansing process and soon turned into a short film. I’m of South Asian background - my children are mixed-race. When I was looking for resources for my daughter, there was virtually nothing out there for young women of color. She would typically be the only female of color in therapy groups...”

“Due to the epidemic of addiction, we wanted to expose its harsh reality through film. Being in recovery ourselves, my brother and I have witnessed many types of scenarios. Things we have faced first hand and things we saw others do. The idea that prompted me writing the film was hearing a high school friend died due to an overdose.”

“This film has to be watched by young people for them to see first hand how easy is to get in to drugs and get locked in that hard life style from where it is very hard to get out. But in this film Mitch explains how he found the way out of his drug addiction and the mental health issues.”

“The film deals with familiar themes in an unfamiliar way. We don’t preach to the audience about sobriety. That’s a journey that’s personal for everyone. What we do is create a compelling visual world that draws you into what Jones is experiencing in real-time.”

“ I found out that he had a son, and that he was someone who now wanted to own his own story. He still had his broken past, but he was trying to rebuild his life. Learning to be a father and learning to deal with loss and pain instead of running from it. And that felt like something worth telling.”

“I made the film because I wanted to profile a positive story about a young Alaska Native activist. I love our indigenous people and have worked among our many native cultures for over 30 years and have a kinship for their triumphs and struggles. I love their innate respect for their elders and traditions that are being revived today. Samuel gives us all hope about the strength of individuals to make a change.”