TRAILER
SYNOPSIS
Once a bustling industrial town, Huntington, West Virginia has become the epicenter of America’s modern opioid epidemic, with an overdose rate 10 times the national average. This flood of heroin now threatens this Appalachian city with a cycle of generational addiction, lawlessness, and poverty. But within this distressed landscape, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon (Hollow) shows a different side of the fight against drugs — one of hope. Sheldon highlights three women working to change the town’s narrative and break the devastating cycle of drug abuse one person at a time. Fire Chief Jan Rader spends the majority of her days reviving those who have overdosed; Judge Patricia Keller presides over drug court, handing down empathy along with orders; and Necia Freeman of Brown Bag Ministry feeds meals to the women selling their bodies for drugs. As America’s opioid crisis threatens to tear communities apart, the Netflix original short documentary Heroin(e) shows how the chain of compassion holds one town together.
REVIEWS
“Putting human faces on the crisis” New York Times
“The very best of the Oscar-nominated shorts” NonFics
“A ride-along through a part of the country that has long been stigmatized and caricatured” LA TIMES
“Transcends the politics of our current moment” Slant Magazine
“A portrait of America few big-city dwellers ever see” Film Journal
“Direct style strips the doc of any needless propaganda and commentary” Boulder Weekly
“Beacons of hope and compassion” IDA
“Finds the humanity numbers too easily ignore” The Film Stage
“Transcends the art of filmmaking” The Wrap
“Hauntingly powerful film on the opioid crisis” Mother Jones
18 documentaries that will change your life Hello Giggles
“A powerful case for compassion” Forbes
“Powerful” Paste Magazine
“Unflinching portrayal.” Moveable Fest
“Alternating between stark realism and a sense of the surreal” NEW REPUBLIC
“Netflix documentary shows the women trying to save a city from addiction” THINK PROGRESS
10 Most Powerful Docs of 2017 NATION SWELL
