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Addicts throw off their anonymity in documentary

What: The Anonymous People Where: Vic Theatre When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Tickets: $10 at the door Info: cedarscobblehill.com “Sobriety is curable,” reads the sign outside the Carlton Club. “Drink triples. See double.
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Scene from The Anonymous People.

What: The Anonymous People

Where: Vic Theatre

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Tickets: $10 at the door

Info: cedarscobblehill.com

 

 

“Sobriety is curable,” reads the sign outside the Carlton Club.

“Drink triples. See double. Act single,” it says a few weeks later.

With one in 10 Canadians struggling with addiction and 23.5 million Americans living in long-term recovery, the Esquimalt nightclub’s slogans are no laughing matter.

Making light of such a serious public-health issue reiterates why there’s been such a culture of anonymity surrounding recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, most famously through Alcoholics Anonymous.

Greg Williams, 29, attempts to dispel false, dehumanizing perceptions of people from all walks of life depicted as drunks, lushes, junkies and so on but afflicted with a legitimate disease in his fascinating documentary The Anonymous People.

As a prelude to Victoria’s Recovery Day event Sunday at Centennial Square, Cedars at Cobble Hill treatment centre is presenting Williams’s film at the Vic Theatre on Saturday night.

“Oh, there’s one more thing I have to tell you about myself — I’m a drug addict,” says the clean-cut Connecticut filmmaker after introducing his wife Michelle and dog Jersey, and professing his love for the New York Yankees. Williams, who became addicted in high school, is a shining example of recovery among many in his documentary.

In addition to articulate input on a profoundly complex issue from experts including authors Bill White and William Cope Moyers (Broken), the film showcases the inspiring success of high-profile recovery advocates.

We hear from Kristen Johnston (Sex and the City), the amusingly candid Emmy Award-winning actress who wrote a book (Guts) about her recovery; former NBA player Chris Herren, former U.S. congressman Patrick Kennedy; Rhode Island politician Tom Coderre; former Fox News Channel anchor Laurie Dhue; Tara Conner, Miss USA in 2006, and more.

“I’m still referred to as the ‘disgraced’ Miss USA five years later,” quips the sober former beauty queen, punctuating archival footage of the media circus that mercilessly chronicled her alcoholism.

“The irony is that the second they achieve stability, they disappear from the airwaves,” observes White, following a montage of tabloid stories sensationalizing the substance abuse of Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen. “A lot of people made a lot of money off Charlie Sheen,” notes Dhue, commenting on the media’s lurid fascination with the dysfunctional side of a misunderstood illness.

“It’s not a moral failing … It’s a chronic disease of the brain and it can be treated,” emphasizes R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the office of National Drug Control Policy in the U.S. in this alternately heartbreaking and hopeful documentary that aims to break an entrenched social stigma that has silenced many demonized addicts for years.

Marshall Smith, a recovering addict and former ministerial assistant during Gordon Campbell’s first term, says the film has given rise to renewed energy in a growing grassroots recovery movement. “We see the face of addiction around us all the time,” says Smith, manager of community relations for Cedars. “People need to see the face of recovery. There are millions of Canadians ... who suffer in silence, and hopefully they’ll find their way into recovery.”

While Williams has said his intention wasn’t to criticize AA — he acknowledges the success of the spiritual 12-step program — his film clearly advocates going public.

Sprinkled with factoids — addiction costs $350 billion annually in the U.S., with only two per cent spent on treatment — The Anonymous People is absorbing despite some redundancy as it urges recovering addicts to step out of the shadows, just as HIV/AIDS sufferers did to quell discrimination, sparking a grassroots social justice movement.

Ironically, it’s during flashbacks such as the Today show’s Matt Lauer debating Fox news host Bill O’Reilly over media coverage of Whitney Houston’s death, or Johnston’s shocking revelation about her drug habit to David Letterman, that the film is most watchable.

“A friend said, ‘Can I give you some free advice?’ ” the feisty actress recalls, explaining why she wrote Guts. “ ‘You’ve got to stop telling people you’re sober. It makes people uncomfortable.’ ”

The Anonymous People, on the other hand, says bring it on, enhanced with ammunition from recovering addicts including actor Dick Van Dyke and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. “It’s cool to be sober,” concludes Herren. “It’s not a sign of weakness.”

mreid@timescolonist.com