THUNDER BAY — Long Lake #58 Chief Judy Desmoulin highlighted her cameo appearance in the local documentary film, A Sobering Story, during her presentation at the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program Conference 2024, held Nov. 5-7 in Thunder Bay.
The film, by director Ryan La Via, director of photography Ryan Hill, editor Matt King, assistant editor Jessica Graham, camera operator Curtis Jensen and original music composer Michael Kondakow, was screened on the first evening of the NNADAP conference, which was hosted by the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee at the Best Western Plus NorWester Hotel and Conference Centre.
“I strongly recommend the film you are going to be viewing tonight, A Sobering Story — I have about 15 seconds of fame in that film,” says Desmoulin, who delivered a Healing With Strategy presentation on the first morning of the conference.
“It was (screened) to us first, all of us who had a part in it, and I thought … I have to get our people to see this. I saw it about six or seven times, I brought it to our Elders, I brought it to our kids, I brought it to our youth, I brought it to our adults. I brought it to all of our adults who are in recovery and in treatment, so it’s really good, it captures a whole lot in this film. I just get so much out of it every time I watch, I get something different every time.”
Wanda Smith, executive director at Native Horizons Treatment Centre and treatment centre representative at the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee, says the film was “very powerful, impactful, emotional.”
“I noticed that a lot of the audience were holding back tears and sniffling,” Smith says. “(It was) a very good description and depiction of the impact of the opioid crisis, not only on the individuals who use opioids but the families that love and care for them and the services that support them.”
Cecil Mendowegan, a NNADAP worker at Ginoogaming, says the film was “very good, very intense.”
“I highly recommend it to any other NNADAP workers or any other mental health (staff) in the communities and community members,” Mendowegan says. “I’ve seen it before when we brought it into our community in August and we’re hoping to get it again during our addiction awareness week coming up here in the middle of November.
"It’s very powerful and community members said when they saw it (that) some of them could relate to so much of what was on the film. It was very powerful to them and they wanted it back in the community.”
Hill, co-producer, co-writer and director of photography for the film, says the 97-minute film interweaves the stories of four people about recovery, loss, pain, suffering and trauma through addiction.
“We also talk a little bit about different kinds of recovery, harm reduction, opioid agonist therapy,” Hill says. “We even talk a little bit about the neuroscience of substance use — there’s a four-minute scientific animated sequence about how the brain changes once substance is introduced.”
Kyle Arnold, one of the people whose stories were featured in the film, says it was an honour to share his story.
“I’m hoping that it will have an impact in helping people that are struggling with addiction and mental health,” Kyle says. “I’m coming up on six years clean. I got stuck in Thunder Bay in 2018, I spent three months on the street, and after almost 20 years of addiction I finally asked for help and I was one of the very lucky ones that the resources came in when I needed them.
"I spent close to two years in treatment centres and became an outreach worker throughout the city with NorWest Community Health Centres and People Advocating for Change through Empowerment.”
The film, which was initially screened by the North of Superior Film Association in April, is scheduled to be screened at the Vox Popular Media Arts Festival on Nov. 15 and at Confederation College’s Dibaajimogamig Lecture Theatre on Nov. 21 and 22.