Pubdate: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Alexandra Gill THE MAYOR, THE ADDICT AND THE FILMMAKER There's a revolution brewing in Vancouver and it's the subject of a controversial documentary By ALEXANDRA GILL Fix: The Story of an Addicted City attracted a sold-out crowd to its hometown premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival on Sunday night. And if the euphoric reception was any indication, Fix is more than just a documentary -- it's the first snapshot of a movement that's about to smack Vancouver into radical change. Directed by Nettie Wild (A Place Called Chiapas), Fix tells the story of Dean Wilson, a former IBM salesman and heroin addict, who leads the fight to open North America's first safe-injection site for intravenous drug users. Wilson is aided in his cause by Ann Livingston, organizer of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. The two advocates find an unlikely ally in Vancouver's conservative mayor Philip Owen, whose newfound philosophy toward drugs (which favours harm reduction over the American-style war on drugs) cost him the support of his party. (As a result, he will not be a candidate in November's municipal election.) The mayor, the heroin addict, his now pregnant partner, and the documentary-maker received a standing ovation at Sunday night's screening. (The film had its world premiere last month at the Toronto International Film Festival.) "We have to get this film out across the country and into every high school in Canada," said Owen. In lieu of the customary farewell dinner, Owen has asked his supporters to buy tickets to a fundraiser on Oct. 16 in aid of getting theatrical distribution for the film. Tickets to the screening are $100 each. "When I first began this project, I thought it would be a short film that would take about four months and would cover the opening of Vancouver's first safe-injection site for drug users," explained Wild. "That was two years ago." Instead, Wild found herself in the midst of a documentary-maker's dream -- an ongoing social movement and a mayoral campaign that is quickly heating up (now that former coroner Larry "Da Vinci" Campbell has set his sights on the job) into what may be Canada's first election focused on drugs. "Dare I call it a revolution," Wild asked the cheering crowd, which included a busload of squatters who had been brought in from a campsite outside the occupied Woodwards building in the Downtown Eastside. It appears that this revolution has only just begun. After the screening, Wilson told the audience that Vancouver's Harm Reduction Action Society is planning to open the city's first renegade safe-injection site on Oct. 17, the day after Owen's fundraiser. "If you look at every place where safe-injection sites have been established [27 countries around the world], they have all required actions of civil disobedience," said Livingston, a social worker. Owen later said he was not aware of the opening on Oct. 17 and would have to see how this safe-injection site would be supervised before he lends his support. "But I can understand their frustration," he added. [snip] - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D