FIX BECOMES PART OF THE SOLUTION

A Safe Injection Site For Addicts That Opened Recently In Vancouver
Might Not Have Come To Be Without This Film

Just over a year ago, Nettie Wild's documentary Fix: The Story of an
Addicted City had its Vancouver benefit premiere before a mixed crew of
political, high society and heroin junkies. It brought out the cops and
ambulances, but raised $140,000 to send Wild and her film across the country
to increase awareness of drugs and addiction. This week, she's in Montreal,
with the end of the road in sight.

"It's been 33 cities for this dog-and-pony show," said the
infectiously enthusiastic, award-winning veteran filmmaker and
committed activist during a local promotional hustle this week.

"We've been travelling with a heroin addict, a non-user Christian and
new mother, their 11-month-old child, the former conservative mayor of
Vancouver, and a filmmaker. I've been savouring the moment when the
lights come up after the movie and jaws drop when they see what kind
of forum is set up onstage."

Not content to let the message of her movie carry the day, Wild has
organized community forums in every town her Rolling Thunder revue has
visited. Montreal is no exception. Though Wild herself is here for
screenings at Cinema du Parc only until tomorrow, other members of the
troupe will join local experts and advocates for discussions after
most screenings through next Thursday, when Fix makes one final call
in Quebec City.

As her tour of duty winds down, Wild is exhausted, but exhilarated.
Fix has galvanized discussion in places like Kelowna, where the
community came out in multi-generational force to help turn the cinema
back into "the village well" for after-screening discussions.

"Drugs fascinate and spook the hell out of everyone, right across the
spectrum, and across the country," Wild says.

She should know. She spent two years filming her unlikely crusaders -
charismatic junkie militant Dean Wilson, confrontational activist
church-goer and organizer Ann Livingston, and patrician Vancouver
Mayor Philip Owen - as they made unlikely allies in an uphill pursuit
of the first North American safe injection site for drug users in
Vancouver's desolate Downtown Eastside.

"Vancouver is in a helluva lot of trouble," the B.C. native warns.
"Downtown Eastside is a terrible portrait of degradation, with the
highest HIV rate in North America. I was in Mexico (shooting her last
picture, the Genie-winning A Place Called Chiapas) and heard buzz
about the situation there, but had no idea it was that bad until I
came home.

"I have to be bitten by a story. That's what Fix shares with my other
films. They are all about people who have been pushed to take control
over their own lives. When I caught wind that people were trying to
open a drug injection site in Eastside, I was hooked."

Wild started talking to people at street level and worked her way up
to Vancouver's top politician. "I figured I had to talk to the mayor
just to get the other side of the story." It transpired that Owen was
a "live one, a hands-on small-town mayor with the world's biggest
bandwagon, who had realized the only way to combat drug use was to
deal with it realistically."

Wild let the cameras rip. After 350 hours of tape had been compressed
into 96 minutes, she knew she had captured not only a burgeoning love
story between Wilson and Livingston, but the conversion of Owen from
poster child for the status quo into a hero for the disenfranchised -
who was kicked out of his own party for his troubles.

The ultimate triumph for Wild and her "stars" - bigger than extended
runs for Fix in Toronto and Vancouver, bigger than sold-out shows and
great feedback - is the news, seven weeks ago, that Vancouver had
finally opened its first safe injection site. It might not have
happened without Fix.

"Art and politics come together," she beams. "The cinema becomes the
village well and gives people the chance to speak about the
unspeakable."

Wild wants you to raise your voice through next Thursday after screenings of
Fix: The Story of an Addicted City at Cinema du Parc.

Visit www.canadawildproductions.com for forum times and speakers'
lists.