February 13, 2023
FILM: LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL
DIRECTED BY: COLIN ASKEY
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The opioid crisis has been the subject of numerous films and television series in the last few years, most notably the Emmy-winning mini-series Dopesick. The new documentary Love in the Time of Fentanyl explores one particular community in Vancouver, British Columbia that in 2016 saw a record number of deaths from opioids contaminated with fentanyl. It’s a stunning and eye-opening piece of work that further encourages viewers to take action to thwart the spread of these growing casualties.
The film centers on Ronnie Grigg who serves as one of the managers of the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) in East Downtown Vancouver. He oversees the work many volunteers are doing to save the community from the destruction associated with drug abuse. Here is what is interesting about the organization, its setting, and mission: it provides a safe space for people to be treated for their conditions while also allowing them to continue to use drugs. The staff is filled with current and former drug abusers who may still be addicted. The space provided for them and anyone off the streets is to feel safe and protected. This is particularly true of those that overdose. The volunteers have the resources to essentially save their lives. When not dealing with a crisis, the staff is doing upkeep to the relatively large facility. There are meetings and discussions about how to prevent further overdoses. Essentially, the place is run like a hospital and one that is clearly needed there and throughout the world.
Filmmaker Colin Askey uses his camera to mostly observe and let the events unfold in real time. While Ronnie Grigg deals with much of what is happening, he’s the person we get to know the most, and even that is not particularly intimately. Askey’s style is not to conduct a lot of talking heads style interviews but to let us see things happen as they occur. At times this can feel a bit haphazard as so many different things are happening in and outside the facility throughout the course of a day. There were moments when I was not entirely sure what some of the workers were doing, such as providing unknown injections to people who were overdosing. Some of this is my own frustration with the movement among many documentary filmmakers today that choose not provide a lot of exposition or background but to directly take us into the situation at hand. In this case, it does lead to a number of questions such as, where do they get their supplies? How does Canada’s free health care system work into the equation? Are hospitals there ill equipped with the resources organizations like this one has?
There’s also a larger question of how to solve the fentanyl problem. The suggestion is to develop more places such as this rather than try to fix the issue of fentanyl related addictions and deaths. Workers, including Ronnie Grigg, also deal with burn out and PTSD seeing so many people dying around them. There are calls to the government to provide more safe drugs and more 24-hour sites such as OPS but there is clearly still a LOT of work to be done.
So, while the film doesn’t exactly provide answers or solutions it does illustrate a seemingly very effective way for these drug abusers to support one another. It also shows them in a light we don’t typically see as working, thinking, and caregiving individuals who want to give back to their community and help to save it.
Love in the Time of Fentanyl premieres today as part of PBS’s Independent Lens series. Those interested in seeing the film may want to download the PBS Video App that also has many other documentaries worth checking out.
FILM: LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL
DIRECTED BY: COLIN ASKEY
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
The opioid crisis has been the subject of numerous films and television series in the last few years, most notably the Emmy-winning mini-series Dopesick. The new documentary Love in the Time of Fentanyl explores one particular community in Vancouver, British Columbia that in 2016 saw a record number of deaths from opioids contaminated with fentanyl. It’s a stunning and eye-opening piece of work that further encourages viewers to take action to thwart the spread of these growing casualties.
The film centers on Ronnie Grigg who serves as one of the managers of the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) in East Downtown Vancouver. He oversees the work many volunteers are doing to save the community from the destruction associated with drug abuse. Here is what is interesting about the organization, its setting, and mission: it provides a safe space for people to be treated for their conditions while also allowing them to continue to use drugs. The staff is filled with current and former drug abusers who may still be addicted. The space provided for them and anyone off the streets is to feel safe and protected. This is particularly true of those that overdose. The volunteers have the resources to essentially save their lives. When not dealing with a crisis, the staff is doing upkeep to the relatively large facility. There are meetings and discussions about how to prevent further overdoses. Essentially, the place is run like a hospital and one that is clearly needed there and throughout the world.
Filmmaker Colin Askey uses his camera to mostly observe and let the events unfold in real time. While Ronnie Grigg deals with much of what is happening, he’s the person we get to know the most, and even that is not particularly intimately. Askey’s style is not to conduct a lot of talking heads style interviews but to let us see things happen as they occur. At times this can feel a bit haphazard as so many different things are happening in and outside the facility throughout the course of a day. There were moments when I was not entirely sure what some of the workers were doing, such as providing unknown injections to people who were overdosing. Some of this is my own frustration with the movement among many documentary filmmakers today that choose not provide a lot of exposition or background but to directly take us into the situation at hand. In this case, it does lead to a number of questions such as, where do they get their supplies? How does Canada’s free health care system work into the equation? Are hospitals there ill equipped with the resources organizations like this one has?
There’s also a larger question of how to solve the fentanyl problem. The suggestion is to develop more places such as this rather than try to fix the issue of fentanyl related addictions and deaths. Workers, including Ronnie Grigg, also deal with burn out and PTSD seeing so many people dying around them. There are calls to the government to provide more safe drugs and more 24-hour sites such as OPS but there is clearly still a LOT of work to be done.
So, while the film doesn’t exactly provide answers or solutions it does illustrate a seemingly very effective way for these drug abusers to support one another. It also shows them in a light we don’t typically see as working, thinking, and caregiving individuals who want to give back to their community and help to save it.
Love in the Time of Fentanyl premieres today as part of PBS’s Independent Lens series. Those interested in seeing the film may want to download the PBS Video App that also has many other documentaries worth checking out.