Saving Faith is a story about a highly successful Wall Street stockbroker and atheist, Bill Stewart, who is permanently injured from a previous accident while driving intoxicated. Two years later, Bill attends his first Alcoholic Anonymous meeting the morning after having caused the death of the driver of another vehicle. Bill is forced to grapple with his past, which now haunts him, and challenge his current life philosophy - or accept a higher power that might save his life.

AUTHENTICS is an amazing dramatic short film about addiction and recovery, and the first-ever to feature SMART Recovery in its storyline. It centers around a young photographer struggling with addiction who books a job to shoot an engagement party. She meets a man who is no stranger to addiction himself who gently introduces her to the principles of SMART Recovery. He inspires her to change and, in the process, he changes too. The film was written and directed by DANIEL STINE of RISING ACT FILMS and made possible by the generous support of the CHRIS & DEBBIE SWAIN FOUNDATION who want our community to know that, "If this film helps to change just one life, we will consider our investment to have been a great success." This film contains brief sequences of alcohol/drug use. Viewer discretion is advised

Clean Slate is a feature-length documentary that provides an immersive, verité look into the world of recovery amid the biggest drug epidemic in American history. Everyone knows someone who's in recovery, or someone who should be. In following Cassidy and Josh as they attempt to make a short film, our goals are to give viewers a space to empathize with those who struggle and to show how the creative process can be a lifeline to those in crisis. Although most everyone knows someone who’s in recovery or should be, many well-meaning people fail to understand the complex imprisonment that comes with the disease of addiction. Rather than preaching statistics, Clean Slate gives viewers an intimate window into the lives of two filmmakers and the relationship between creativity and recovery. – Jared Callahan, director/producer

Ben Tuff found recovery from alcohol and mental illness in 2012. He is a record-holding ultramarathon swimmer who has created the movie Swim Tuff with Producer, Matt Corliss. Over ten years ago, Ben gave up the bottle and taught himself to swim. Swim Tuff captures Ben’s perseverance and joy in sobriety while looking to destigmatize the idea of addiction and help people learn to follow their dreams. The documentary Swim Tuff: How I Swam my Way Out of the Bottle chronicles Ben’s journey and will animate, inform, and inspire each and every person to adopt a growth-mindset and to bring about change or take on new challenges in their lives one stroke at a time. Official Selections 2023: Rhode Island International Film Festival, The Art of Recovery Film Festival, Los Angeles Reel Recovery Film Festival.

The Fentany Project is a 26 minute documentary that explores a heartbreaking public health crisis sweeping across America - illegal fentanyl is fueling a record number of youth drug deaths through fake pills. The film shares the stories of local families and first responders who courageously share their experiences in an effort to save lives and honor those we have lost - over 100,000 last year. The Fentanyl Project is currently screening nationwide through PBS, and we are happy to bring it to you through Recovery Movie Meet-ups. This powerful short film was directed and edited by award-winning educator and filmmaker KT Curran of Wingspan Productions in Sarasota. Wingspan Productions is dedicated to identifying and addressing critical issues of our time through film.

In a world that's falling apart, a binge-drinking, young widow joins a mobile response team to save young people struggling with a mental health crisis. Embedded with the fire department, she's battling the Chief who doesn't want her there, the clients who fight her efforts to help and her own wounded psyche. She wants to save the world - if the job doesn't kill her first.

The charming small towns and picturesque landscapes of Brown County, Indiana attract artists and seasonal tourists, but behind the scenes the community grapples with most widespread public health issue of our time. Nearly every family, classroom, and workplace in Brown County feels the devastating ripple effects of heroin, meth, and opioid addiction. From the second-by-second panic of overdose to the slower deaths of despair, the ramifications of addiction run deep in America. In The Addict’s Wake, one small, tight-knit community delivers piercing insight and critical perspective to an issue that impacts the nation.

"Swallow THIS: A Documentary about Methadone & Covid-19" (porticofilms.com/swallowthis) reveals the profound impact of the pandemic on people who take methadone. Methadone clinics became superspreader sites for the coronavirus because hundreds of people travel to them six days a week to get medicated. In March 2020, federal agencies made an unprecedented decision - every patient was eligible for 14-or 28-day take-home bottles of methadone. Louise Vincent, the Executive Director of the Urban Survivors Union summed it up,“It took a pandemic for us to get more take-homes.” Directors Marilena Marchetti and Helen Redmond ("Liquid Handcuffs: A Documentary to Free Methadone") traveled across the country to find out what happened. In bracingly honest interviews with patients in Greensboro, North Carolina to New York City to Knoxville, Tennessee to Boston, the new take-home policy was adopted inconsistently. Some experienced liberation from the clinic and others not at all. Swallow THIS is a call to action to abolish methadone clinics and for pharmacy pick up of the medication. The documentary centers interviews with people who take methadone and drug user activists. It includes candid interviews with clinic staff, Leo Beletsky, Director of Health In Justice Action Lab, Biz Berthy, Drug Users Union Organizer, VOCAL-NY, Zachary Talbott, President of National Alliance for Medication Assisted Recovery, and the voices of the Methadone Choir. porticofilms.com/swallowthis

What does an addict need to change to kick addiction? According to Westover Treatment Centre, just one thing—everything. Come Clean follows addicts through 19-days of in-treatment and for 18 months following release as they attempt to break the habits that have delivered them to the brink of ruin.

In this intimate and poignant documentary, filmmaker Henry A. Hopkins tells the story of his brothers struggle with mental illness, drug addiction and the dramatic effects it's had on his family.

Baby, a 29-year-old recovering alcoholic with a penchant for vocal fry, has made a plan to go on a cross-country amends tour to apologize to all the people in her life that she has wronged. However, Baby quickly finds that retracing her missteps while in the midst of a relapse isn’t the inspirational journey she had planned. In the midst of a massive bender, Baby pushes onward on her amends tour. Baby's entire life has been a balancing act; will she be able to continue keeping up appearances, or will she teeter off the edge and hit her deepest bottom yet?

After the death of his brother and serving two years in prison, Joshua moves back in with his mom while under house arrest and is forced to address the addictions that brought him to this point through a 12 step program.

Arin Jacobs battles heroin addiction and the curse of 33- the age her mother and grandmother both died. A psychological time-jumping drugalogue that intercuts between Arin's Bat Mitzvah, heroin addiction, rehab, and recovery.

This visually and artistically unique documentary explores the physical and emotional aspects of a community of Canadian west coast tree planters. Deftly weaving together still photos and film footage, Rita Leistner, an award-winning photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker and erstwhile tree planter, depicts the contradictions in the experiences of the tree planters—the hardship and the healing; the solitude and the joy of belonging—creating an eloquent cinematic metaphor for the human condition. Finding common cause, self-knowledge and meaning in their formidable task, the tree planters restore themselves and each other in the process of restoring the environment. “An epic poem about tree planting that digs us inside the planters’ lives and dreams” — John Greyson, film/video artist and queer activist “Knock-out gorgeous! Leistner is a magnificent story-teller” — Jean McGlothlin, Founder Sebastopol Film Festival “Stunningly and disturbingly beautiful” — Paul Wilson, translator and writer “The book is astonishing! Truly perfect” — Deirdre Donhohue, Managing Research Librarian, New York Public Library "Leistner is a force of nature and as real as they come" — Manfred Becker, filmmaker, Program Director of Film Studies, York University “One of the best films I’ve seen about documentary photography” — Nina Berman, Photographer and Filmmaker, Noor Images

Liquid Handcuffs: A Documentary to Free Methadone, co-directed by Helen Redmond and Marilena Marchetti, shines a spotlight on the closed world of methadone clinics. An international cast of methadone users, activists, and healthcare providers explain the benefits and the barriers to getting the medication.

I Fall explores the carnage and chaos of addiction. Focusing on the twisted love story between two addicts – how they can’t live with or without each other – and their unbearable compulsion to use. But through the despair, we see that recovery can be possible.

RENT FOR FACILITY / COMMUNITY SCREENING Thirty years ago, in response to of a wave of addiction, gang violence, marginalization and poverty that had turned East Los Angeles into a war zone, Father Gregory Boyle, S.J., founded Home Boy Industries. Due to his efforts, East Los Angeles has become a beacon of hope for many cities, small and large, seeking more effective ways to stem the tide of death and suffering. In 2017, over 75,000 people died from a drug overdose, the highest number ever recorded in the U.S. and more than were killed in the Viet Nam War and more than die each year from fire arms and traffic fatalities combined. Over 30 million Americans suffer from Substance Abuse Disorder, a.k.a. addiction. Since 1988, over 120,000 people have graduated through the Home Boy program and are on a spiritual Joy Ride based on non-violence, loving kindness, compassion, and forgiveness — for themselves and others.

RENT FOR FACILITY / COMMUNITY SCREENING Stand Down is a 30 minute film documenting the miracle of recovery. Each year thousands of volunteers show up to help Veterans find their way back to meaning and purpose. The creation of a camp-like setting is formulated to invite each person to tap into their best self. Once inside the camp every social service is available from dental, legal, and housing. The Big Plus here is the camaraderie that Veterans crave. Far too many of those who walk through the gates are looking for a way to break through their isolation brought on by trauma, substance use disorders, or mental health problems. Stand Down is an invitation to enter into a place where Veterans are seen, heard and respected. From its origins in San Diego in 1988 over 300 Stand Downs are now in place across the country. This documentary demonstrates the empathy, healing, and support that is the right of all who have served our country. For those that have been on the streets being able to trust the environment is a massive relief. Allowing others to express their vulnerabilities in a secure place with other Veterans is a healing opportunity. Asking for and getting support allows the women and men in attendance to find their way out of no way. In the words of Dr. Jon Nachison the co-founder of this event, “Stand Down is part family picnic, part drug free Woodstock music festival, with a big dose of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.”

RENT FOR FACILITY / COMMUNITY SCREENING When people come into our cafes for the first time they are on the threshold of choosing something new.They are in a liminal space and it is scary because we all know the familiar and what we have done in the past but we don’t know where this new path will take us. We all have layers of inner wounds. Out of those layers of wounds emerge many ways of being in the world that create pain for us and often for others. Ways like shame, blame, anger, and self loathing . Those ways of being in the world create pain and isolation. There is so many ways to numb pain.. not just drugs and alcohol, there’s shopping, digital devices, there’s gambling.

RENTAL FOR FACILITY / COMMUNITY The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. The opposite of addiction is community and connection. At a synagogue in West Los Angeles there is a treatment center that approaches addiction as a spiritual malady. Soul Sanctuary is a 28 minute documentary film about Beit T’Shuvah a long- term treatment facility which serves people with substance use disorders. The Hebrew translation of Beit is house and T’Shuvah is repentance and new response.

COMMUNITY SCREENING RENTAL: JustUs is the story of a family in the Española Valley of New Mexico ministering to their community during an epidemic of heroin addiction and political corruption. This location is the homeland of a variety of Indigenous tribes. In 1598 Spanish Conquistadores attempted to colonize this area. The Pueblo rebellion of 1680 was a reaction to enslavement that resonates with historical traumas that even remain today. Most of the people here are bi-racial. The Spanish language is a dominant cultural influence. Though the land is enchanting, poverty is endemic and the State of New Mexico is ranked 49th in educational achievement. Job training facilities and job opportunities are nearly nonexistent with the distribution of heroin and methamphetamine being the primary source of income.

RENT FOR FACILITY / COMMUNITY SCREENING The journey, as it is known, is the spiritual work Native Peoples use to transform painful experiences into meaning and purpose. It takes courage to show up for one’s life and respect. Since 1989 the NW Coastal Indians have participated in a Canoe Journey to villages on the ancestral highways of the Salish Sea. The commitment to be a part of this means joining a canoe family which excludes members using alcohol or drugs. This is a spiritual commitment and people who are in recovery are urged to join as it brings healing to themselves, their family, and the tribe.

When Lenny, a middle aged actor struggling with an eating disorder, experiences a harrowing personal experience, he must contend with his problem in a very visceral way.