Heroin Town

First time director Josh Goldbloom sprung into action after watching Dan Rather's rather scathing report entitled Heroin Town. Here's the intro to his piece

This is a story about a small town in New England that has a problem you’d never expect.

Heroin. It’s a problem that has existed for decades.

It’s been so bad for so long that some people call the place "Heroin Town."

Spend some time there, and you’ll begin to understand why the war on drugs has been such a failure. Dan Rather reports.

I saw the report and it was pretty dramatic. I remember thinking, hey, where's the other side of this story? I don't recall them speaking to any of the residents in a positive light.

Lady took me out to see the film last night in her hometown of Willimantic, CT a.k.a. Heroin Town. Technically speaking, the film was pretty lacking. It was basically Goldbloom with a handheld DV cam and some mics. Lots of camera shake, poor exposure settings and no white balance. But the content was good and that's what's most important in a documentary. As long as the filming process doesn't take care of the content, I won't really complain.

The film focused on the residents of the Hotel Hooker featured in the 60 Minutes story. While 60 Minutes focused on the negative side, Goldbloom focused on the positive side. The residents who were trying to better themselves. There was Toni who was an admitted heroin addict, but she wanted to start winning the battle. She said that she knew that she would never get over her addiction in the long run, but she wanted to beat it if for only a little while.

There was Pat, a somtimes cross-dressing gay man who used to be hooked on smack, but has since been a part of a methadone program.

There was Rose who had lived and worked at the hotel for ten years.

There was Mike who was once homeless, but had since checked into the hotel and is on a fixed income vie the state.

This wasn't exactly the most balanced documentary, but it did give the other side of the story that 60 Minutes left out.

I don't think this will be on a nationwide theatrical release, but who knows. If you do get a chance to see it, see it. It's a great story of a small town that was bulldozed by 60 Minutes without being able to tell their own side of the story to a national media. This film is their testament to the good that goes on inside of their town. Everyone has their faults, but to point them out does not make you the better person. To point them out and then stay around and help improve and fix those problems takes effort and CBS sure as hell didn't want to do that. Too bad.

For more info on the documentary, here's Goldbloom's Heroin Town site.