URBAN DECAY

Documentary Set In Vancouver. Nettie Wild Tells Compelling Story Of
Three People Trying To Do Something About Drugs And Addiction

Nettie Wild's FIX: The Story of an Addicted City is not just nominally a
film about drug addicts and addiction set in Vancouver's devastated
Downtown Eastside.

The new documentary by one of the country's greatest and most respected
political filmmakers is an in-your-face, up-your-nose showdown with the
causes and effects, the victims and perpetrators of the world's largest
underground economy. Junkies shoot junk, crackheads smoke crack and lives
are wasted before the unsparing eye of Wild and crew during a two-year
production in the very heart of urban darkness.

But Fix is more than a staring-down of the dope cancer that is devouring
the cities, towns and culture of Canada and virtually every other country
on Earth. It is also an irresistibly compelling drama about three
extraordinarily unlikely individuals drawn together in their desire to do
something about drug use in Vancouver. And Wild was there to film them.

Dean Wilson is a big-haired, tattooed showman and drug addict who, as
president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) is a
charismatic spokesperson for street addicts from the impoverished Downtown
Eastside, site of the highest HIV rate in North America. Dean cuts a
powerful street-level political figure, when he isn't messed up on heroin
or methadone, or worse - neither.

Ann Livingston is the straight, devoutly Christian, impeccably organized,
fiercely passionate and fearlessly confrontational organizer of VANDU.
Together with a motley crew of street addicts she and Dean take their
campaign to open North America's first safe injection site for drug users
all the way to city hall.

There they meet Philip Owen, the wealthy, square, conservative mayor of all
Vancouver sitting comfortably in his ninth year of office. What chance will
they have of convincing him that the presence of a safe local site for
injection without threat of overdose or infection is a first step toward
getting addicts off the streets and into treatment programs?

Just because the sites have been proven to save lives in 27 other cities
around the world, why should Owen throw his bespoke-suited shoulder to
their grimy wheel?

OK, OK. He does. It turns out he wants his legacy to be something called
Harm Reduction, a four-pronged program that essentially realizes drug
addiction exists and must honestly be confronted. So this odd trio go to
work, and it is truly something to see.

Do just that as FIX begins its week-long run at Cinema du Parc tonight.
Afterward, participate in a nightly community forum in French and English
about drugs and addiction, featuring members of the film and local experts
and advocates.

FIX: The Story of an Addicted City begins tonight and continues until next
Thursday in English, with French subtitles, at Cinema du Parc. For nightly
information on the list of participants and forum times, visit
www.canadawildproductions.com

FIX: The Story of an Addicted City

Rating 4

Playing at: Cinema du Parc.

Parents' guide: language, drug use, shocking images.