SPECIAL EVENT
“The Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere”
Presents
REEL Recovery Film & Theater Festival~Skid Row LA Edition
May 3-5, 2013
FREE ADMISSION
Inner City Arts, 720 Kohler St., Los Angeles, CA 90021
Media Sponsor
*All films and times are subject to change
Friday, May 3
Lost Angels: Skid Row is My Home
1:15 PM
Lost Angels: Skid Row is My Home (2010) Los Angeles’ Skid Row is home to one of the largest homeless populations in the United States. And we found, inside that community, the remarkable and enormously moving stories of Olympic athletes, Harvard attorneys, accomplished musicians, scholars. We found poverty, drugs and mental illness, of course – but more importantly we found life, hope and incredibly powerful human journeys. Directed by Thomas Napper. 77 minutes
In Person: Invited Guests, Cast & Crew
No Kidding, Me Too!
3:00 PM
No Kidding, Me Too! (2009) Actor Joe Pantoliano steps behind the camera to direct this documentary exploring the devastating effects of mental illness, and the stigma that goes with it. In this film, JP attempts to shatter the stigma by speaking with researchers working towards a cure for such maladies as clinical depression and ADHD, and encouraging people affected by those disorders to speak out about their struggles and experiences. Director: Joe Pantoliano. Starring Devon Gearhart and Joe Pantoliano. 75 minutes
IN PERSON: Marcos Lofreddo of Queens’ Drog Addictos Anonymos
Flight
5:00 PM
Flight (2012) is about Whip Whitfield, a commuter airline pilot. On a flight from Orlando to Atlanta something goes wrong with the plane and with little choice he is forced to crash. Upon waking in the hospital, he learns of the fatalities and is told he could face criminal charges because his blood tested positive for drugs and alcohol. As he denies impairment of any kind, an investigation emerges, and although he is told to keep his act together, he continues to drink. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. 138 minutes
Performance- Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere
7:00 PM
Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere is a performance by members of Los Angeles Poverty Department, comprised of people who live and work on Skid Row. Skid Row is a place where recovery happens. In LAPD’s Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere movement, story and vision intersect in a sacred and profane meditation on the role of abrupt shifts of consciousness in making community out of chaos.
Post performance conversation with Christopher Mack and John Jefferson. Chris Mack is a public health worker with the JWCH clinic on Skid Row. Chris and John Jefferson lead 4 of the 80+ recovery meetings that happen in Skid Row each week. Chris and John call their meetings the “Dynamics of Recovery”.
Saturday, May 4
Drunk in Public
1:00 PM
Drunk In Public (2012) A 17 year chronicle of the life of alcoholic Mark David Allen. Directed by David J. Sperling. 80 minutes
In Person: Director David Sperling
McArthur Park
3:00 PM
McArthur Park (2001) is a gritty drama that explores crack addiction, homelessness, and ultimately, redemption. Directed by Billy Wirth. 86 minutes
In Person: Director Billy Wirth, Writer Tyrone Atkins and Cast
Life in a Basket
5:00 PM
Life in a Basket (2003) We’ve all seen homeless people pushing shopping carts down the street, shopping carts packed to the brim with all kinds of “junk.” But what’s actually inside those shopping carts anyway? In an almost surreal show-and-tell, this documentary allows homeless people to explain just what they carry in their traveling carts-and why. In this simple and humanizing film, some thirty men and women explain what they have in their carts, and why the items they push around are so important to their physical, psychological, and spiritual survival. You’ll never look at those carts the same way again. Directed by David Hogan. 32 minutes
In Person: Producer Sheri Sussman
Performance- Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere
7:00 PM
Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere is a performance by members of Los Angeles Poverty Department, comprised of people who live and work on Skid Row. Skid Row is a place where recovery happens. In LAPD’sBiggest Recovery Community Anywhere movement, story and vision intersect in a sacred and profane meditation on the role of abrupt shifts of consciousness in making community out of chaos.
Post performance conversation with John Malpede, Director of Los Angeles Poverty Department, and Marcos Loffredo. Marcos Loffredo is a recovering addict and the Deputy Director of the Corona Self Help Center Inc. (CSHC) also known as Drogadictos Anónimos (DA) in Queens, New York. For almost 15 years they have offered free recovery services and temporary housing to men and their families who suffer from substance abuse with a voluntary structure that allows the members access to the 12 step recovery program 24 hours a day 7 days a week. As a grassroots organization with its origins in Mexico City DA will celebrate their 30th year anniversary with 34 facilities in the Mexican Republic. The Queens location is the first of two groups in the USA and hopes to collaborate with LAPD next winter, during LAPD’s residency at The Queens Museum.
Sunday, May 5
On the Bowery
1:00 PM
On The Bowery (1956) One of the most famous of all American independent films, “On the Bowery” is the extraordinary cinema verite depiction of alcoholism on New York’s infamous Skid Row. “A milestone in American cinema…it’s a rare achievement.”—Martin Scorsese. “There’s both surprising redemption and a stone-cold reality check at the end of this woozy-view slice of gutter life.”— San Francisco Bay Guardian. “Rogosin is probably the greatest documentary filmmaker of all time.” –John Cassavetes. Directed by Lionel Rogosin. 65 minutes
IN PERSON: Special Guest TBA
Half Nelson
3:00 PM
Half Nelson (2006) An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret. Directed by Ryan Fleck. Starring Ryan Gosling.
In Person: Former teacher and screenwriter (My Uncle Rafi, One Eight Seven,) Scott Yagerman with clinical psycoholgist Chanda Rankin, Phd.
Bill W.
5:00 PM
Bill W. (2012) tells the story of William G. Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr. Bob Smith. Bill W. was included in TIME Magazine’s “100 Persons of the 20th Century.” Interviews, recreations, and rare archival material reveal how Bill Wilson, a hopeless drunk near death from his alcoholism, found a way out of his own addiction and then forged a path for countless others to follow. Directed by Dan Carracino and Kevin Hanlon. Starring Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob, Lois WIlson, Blake Evans, Ebby Thatcher. 104 minutes
In Person: Director Dan Carracino
Performance- Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere
7:00 PM
Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere is a performance by members of Los Angeles Poverty Department, comprised of people who live and work on Skid Row. Skid Row is a place where recovery happens. In LAPD’s Biggest Recovery Community Anywhere movement, story and vision intersect in a sacred and profane meditation on the role of abrupt shifts of consciousness in making community out of chaos.
Post performance conversation with Los Angeles Poverty Department’s cast.
