By 2003, filmmaker David Graham Scott had been addicted to heroin and opiates for 20 years. To free himself of this lifetime of addiction, he decides to try a ‘quick fix’ and take the unlicensed drug, Ibogaine, that had been known to set users free from their addictions after enduring 36 hours of horrendous hallucinations.
You might have seen Randy rolling on the sidewalk and drooling. The stench of his body might have caused you to cross the street.
J is for Junkie comes as a hard-hitting and beautifully shot documentary on crack and being homeless. Filmed in “The Living Room” in Atlanta, a small cove tucked in behind a Texaco gas station, the documentary captures African-American men and women opening up to Corey Davis, a young filmmaker with an artistic flare and an anthropologist’s care for documenting lived reality.
As a bright schoolboy from a loving, middle-class family Ben Rogers was expected to make a success of his life. Raised in a quiet, picturesque village Ben was a Boy Scout, loved cricket, played in the school orchestra and looked forward to the annual family holiday.