Photo credit: Courtesy of AFI
“The reason I chose this subject matter is because someone very close to me struggled with a heroin addiction,” said Laura Naylor, director of The Fix, in an interview with Hollywood on the Potomac. “I was really affected myself by that and wanted to learn more about this disease that had changed somebody I love. I live in New York and I had close proximity to the Bronx. There has been an epidemic of heroin there, not just recently like some of the rest of the country, since the 60s and 70s.
There I was able to meet people who had used heroin over the course of 20 or 30 years and were just now recovering. That was a particular insight that I found very enlightening and fascinating.” The powerful documentary kicked off AFI’s Film Festival.
About The Fix: “Junior, a young father trying to turn his life around after years of heroin addiction, joins forces with a group of fellow hepatitis-C-infected former junkies in the Bronx to fight the disease in their community. Knitting personal narratives together with a profile of innovative programs at a methadone clinic, the film explores the concept of storytelling as an instrument of change and gives a powerful voice to a marginalized population. Ultimately a very personal story of redemption and hope, THE FIX puts a human face on addiction and disease with sensitivity and grace.” Production Notes
“My film is a very personal story about a small group of people working to recover in the Bronx,” Naylor explained. “My perspective as a filmmaker wasn’t all encompassing of the epidemic in general all across the country; the story I told was about these particular lives and their journey towards recovery.”
“Anecdotally,” said Naylor, “I think that the way individuals get into using heroin differs based on their socioeconomic class; or short of demographics, that would be the middle class or more affluent people who often have a gateway drug via prescriptions. If you have a habit for prescriptions and they become too expensive, it’s easy trying heroin which is incredibly cheap on the street.
I started going to a methadone clinic in the Bronx and sitting in on groups and meeting people and talking to them about their stories before I started the film. During that development process, there were several people who I found very compelling and whose stories are different from each other and that shed light on different aspects of recovery and drug use and disease and I selected people who wanted or were willing to share their story.”
Laura Naylor
The film closes just after they reunite (after ten years) and that is a very emotional high for both of them. “I think that is a very redemptive story for him, rebuilding that relationship with the daughter that he thought he had broken. Having an absent father who was a heroin father, it clearly must have affected her in negative ways, But the film isn’t her story, it’s about the positivity of having a father come back and want to be a part of your life.”
We were of course curious as to how often it happens that people are able to get off drugs and do what he did.
“There are many, many different statistics and none of them seem quite reliable but I will say it’s very rare and that’s one interesting thing about the film is that I’ve chosen to tell a whole story about someone who has been successful at turning their life around. Addiction is a chronic relapsing disease. Just because Junior had come this far doesn’t mean he’s immune to relapse, but I chose to tell the story to give other people hope because what often is in the news are the very dark, demoralizing statistics and outcomes. People are working hard to recover. I hope that this [film] will bring them hope and motivation to keep on going.”
The Fix will be on the festival circuit around the country for the next three or four months and then it will be distributed for broadcast.
The Trailer:
THE FIX | DIRECTED BY LAURA NAYLOR | FESTIVAL TRAILER from BY THE BY PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.
