- Drugs
While honing my acting skills in class, I was inspired by a teacher I was studying with who gave us a “Call To Action”. We all have a story to tell…so tell it!
I had always written my story about how I started using heroin in many different forms; from stream of consciousness, a play, a screenplay, and even as a short story, but I always stopped at the same place. I was never able to see the ending.
After receiving the call to action, I woke up the next day and started to write. The story just flowed out of my pen, I couldn’t keep up….I couldn’t write fast enough. The story that was flowing was not about my active addiction, but about my first year clean in recovery. I realized that was the most difficult time for me: a time I had to face the truth of what my life had become without a drug to hide behind. I also found that family and friends didn’t want to talk about it and acted as if nothing had happened. There was an unspoken expectation that because I was not using, then everything was fine.
I felt like a turtle without a shell, raw and emotionally exposed. This was the story I wanted to tell in the film “Grace”. Anyone can watch a film and learn how to shoot a bag of dope or smoke a crack pipe. I wanted to tell a story of hope and recovery and bridge a gap between addicts and non-addicts to start that conversation of recovery. There is something to be said about how we can all be a little more compassionate for each other’s struggles to overcome against all odds.
If I can reach one person with this film, I feel my job of being of service is complete.
Thank you for your time and your generosity of spirit!
In Joy,
Marisa V