A Sobering Story, a movie by by Thunder Bay filmmaker Ryan La Through, was featured on the Nationwide Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program Convention 2024, held Nov. 5-7 in Thunder Bay.
THUNDER BAY — Lengthy Lake #58 Chief Judy Desmoulin highlighted her cameo look within the native documentary movie, A Sobering Story, throughout her presentation on the Nationwide Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program Convention 2024, held Nov. 5-7 in Thunder Bay.
The movie, by director Ryan La Through, director of images Ryan Hill, editor Matt King, assistant editor Jessica Graham, digicam operator Curtis Jensen and authentic music composer Michael Kondakow, was screened on the primary night of the NNADAP convention, which was hosted by the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee on the Finest Western Plus NorWester Resort and Convention 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 Therapeutic With Technique presentation on the primary morning of the convention.
“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, government director at Native Horizons Therapy Centre and therapy centre consultant on the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee, says the movie 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 employee at Ginoogaming, says the movie 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 images for the movie, says the 97-minute movie interweaves the tales of 4 folks about restoration, loss, ache, struggling and trauma by way of dependancy.
“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 many folks whose tales have been featured within the movie, 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 movie, which was initially screened by the North of Superior Movie Affiliation in April, is scheduled to be screened on the Vox Standard Media Arts Competition on Nov. 15 and at Confederation Faculty’s Dibaajimogamig Lecture Theatre on Nov. 21 and 22.
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