A film festival for recovering addicts
JOBURG – The South African Recovery Film Festival returns for a fourth year.
Addiction, mental health and recovery is the talk of the town as a festival of a different sort comes to town.
Continuing its focus on films exploring themes of addiction, mental health issues and recovery, the South African Recovery Film Festival opened on 22 September at the Bioscope in Maboneng and runs until 25 September.
The festival, which has once again partnered with the South African College of Applied Psychology (Sacap), aims to educate, entertain, inform and promote solutions to addiction as well as share stories of successful recoveries.
It is part of the International Recovery Month initiative which sees thousands of events take place all around the world.
“Everyone knows someone who is negatively affected by substance abuse, whether alcohol or drugs. The problems are all too evident and the impacts are seen on every level of society and all too obvious. However, the solutions are too seldom celebrated,” said festival organiser, Dougie Dudgeon.
“The South African Recovery Film Festival encourages those in recovery to come together as active members of their communities, as role models and credible messengers of hope.”
South Africa is in the grip of some devastating socio-economic challenges including poverty and homelessness and rampant violent crime. Almost invariably these are interlaced with substance abuse and addiction.
The festival draws a spotlight on these challenges, raising awareness and taking festival-goers behind the mask of addiction. “More importantly, the festival highlights the heroic path to recovery that many have chosen – a pathway that was only faintly visible to them from within the darkness of their dependency,” explained Sacap’s chief executive officer, Lance Katz.
“These are not the actions of super-human Olympians, but rather ordinary men and women who courageously chose life instead of death. This is the most empowering message of the festival. That recovery is not the preserve of a few elite, but a possibility for all addiction sufferers.”
The festival opened with the South African premier of (DIS) Honesty – The Truth About Lies, a film about the ambivalent culture of truth and recovery, and how honesty is seen as a foundation stone.
Details: www.southafricanrecoveryfilmfestival.com; www.webtickets.co.za
Add us on Whatsapp for the latest news by adding 079 4395 345 to your contact list and just send your name to us so we can save your number. Click here to find out more about our Whatsapp policy.
