Love in the Time of Fentanyl

September 9, 2023
6 PM
SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts | 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

A group of misfits, artists, and drug users operates a renegade safe injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Love in the Time of Fentanyl is an intimate portrait of a community fighting to save lives and keep hope alive in a neighbourhood ravaged by the overdose crisis.

From its opening, the documentary demonstrates what happens when a community comes together to provide care to the most vulnerable of populations, treating each individual with profound dignity.

Explore the humanity of the Downtown Eastside from the perspective of a group of misfits, artists, and drug users operating Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), the renegade safe injection site.

POST-FILM PANEL DISCUSSION
– Colin Askey (Director, Editor, Producer)
– Sarah Blyth (Executive Director, Overdose Prevention Society)
– Moderator: Chris Reed, Reel Causes’ Indigenous Curator

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The mandate of the Overdose Prevention Society is to be leaders in the harm reduction movement with a continual push for change and justice, offer employment and advancement opportunities for members of the Downtown Eastside community, and continually work to break the stigma of addiction through empowering drug users and fighting against preconceptions of substance use. They continue to challenge the normalization of the opioid crisis every day. They are a community driven, grassroots initiative that bring people in from the alley and provide a safe and welcoming place to use drugs.

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Reel Causes partners with filmmakers and Canadian causes dedicated to addressing global social justice issues. We host film screenings followed by a Q&A session to educate and inspire our community, and provide a forum for authentic conversation around the issues that affect us locally.

City of Vancouver
BC Arts Council
Canada Council for the Arts
SFU's Vancity Office of Community  Engagement
Consumer Protection BC