WAVE Cinema Video Contest

Watch the video entries

Connecting with Care – Switzerland (Winner of the 1st prize in Category 1)

By: Conor Ashleigh (Visual Storyteller,  International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users – INHSU)

Description: Switzerland has some of the world’s most liberal drug policies and harm reduction services, including Heroin Assisted Treatment (HAT). This film goes behind the scenes of Arud, a successful harm reduction service which offers HAT, documenting successes as well as shining a light on the challenges yet to be overcome. These include the urgent need to link more people into hepatitis C testing and treatment services.

Risk to Resilience: Empowering youth through positive goals-focused prevention interventions (Winner of the 2nd prize in Category 1)

By: Diana Vincent, Shalini George, David George, Marea Kollamkulam & Divyadharsha Ravichandran (Fourth Wave Foundation)

Description: Adolescents are vulnerable to harmful risk-taking, and affected by social environments, which impact on behaviour. Scientific evidence-based prevention strategies ensure that youth stay healthy and safe through adulthood and old age. Every dollar spent on prevention can save at least ten dollars in future health, social, and crime caused by SUD. This video showcases youth-focused prevention interventions in the Indian context, highlighting The Alternative Pursuits Program, based on the Icelandic Prevention Model, a science-based prevention program developed by the Fourth Wave Foundation.

Video not available for viewing at this time

Everywhere there is Life (Winner of the 3rd prize in Category 1)

By: European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) & CinePlus (Coordinated by: Mila Mancheva, EUAA)

Description: This short video animation has been developed to be shown to youth applicants in the first month of arrival to aid group discussions towards constructively using their time while in reception. The animation has been developed through a joint EMCDDA (now EUDA) – EUAA study on substance use by applicants in reception settings in EU+ countries, with focus groups to refine the piece. It aims to address some of the study findings pointing to limited prevention initiatives in reception and to male youth and unaccompanied minors being among the groups most at risk. The video is aimed to aid prevention efforts of reception staff, who conduct group talks with youth applicants on positive coping mechanisms while waiting for decision on their application.

Exploring barriers to treatment seeking with women who use methamphetamine

By: Theodora Karavasilis, Brendan Clifford, Rosemary Hansen, Krista Siefried, Nadine Ezard (The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) The University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Description: While half of people who use methamphetamine regularly are women, they make up only one third of people seeking treatment for methamphetamine use disorder. There is a lack of knowledge about the facilitators and barriers to treatment for women who use methamphetamine regularly. This video summarises the lived experience stories of women about using methamphetamine, seeking treatment and treatment preferences. Through it, we share and bring visibility to this pertinent issue and encourage the alcohol and drug workforce, and policy makers, to consider the unique needs of women.

Connecting with Care – HepC model of care in Rafsanjan, Iran

By: Conor Ashleigh (Visual Storyteller,  International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users – INHSU)

Description: In a small city in the South-East of Iran, a group of philanthropists have privately funded a low-threshold hepatitis C testing and treatment program, helping vulnerable communities access the care, treatment and dignity they deserve. A unique micro elimination project, ENHANCE Rafsanjan, not only demonstrates a successful model that can be replicated elsewhere, but also showcases a potential alternative for funding vital healthcare interventions.

Strengthening first line telephone support for people who use methamphetamine in Australia

By: Krista J Siefried, Florence Bascombe, Dora Karavasilis, Nadine Ezard (National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs, University of New South Wales, Australia) & Rosemary Hansen (Insight: Centre for alcohol and other drug training and workforce development, Australia).

Description: Australian alcohol and other drug (AOD) telephone helplines are a frontline service and often the first contact point for people with issues related to substance use, their family, friends or employers. These helplines take over 100,000 calls annually. This video outlines a training needs analysis of this critical Australian AOD workforce, providing a structured approach to supporting the first-line AOD counsellors to provide up-to-date and accurate information to assist Australians seeking information, support and advice.

Lisdexamphetamine for the treatment of methamphetamine withdrawal: Safety and feasibility

By: Liam Acheson, Krista Siefried (National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs, UNSW, Australia), Nadine Ezard (St Vicnent’s Hospital Sydney), & Rosemary Hansen (Insight: Centre for alcohol and other drug training and workforce development, Australia)

Description: There is currently no approved treatment for methamphetamine (MA) withdrawal. This video reports on the first pilot clinical trial conducted to determine the feasibility and safety of a tapering dose of a new pharmacotherapeutic option, Lisdexamfetamine, for the treatment of acute MA withdrawal. Lisdexamfetamine was found to be safe and feasible for the treatment of acute MA withdrawal.

Connecting with Care – Portugal

By: Conor Ashleigh (Visual Storyteller,  International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users – INHSU)

Description: In July 2001, Portugal decriminalised the personal use and possession of all illicit drugs. At the time, the decision was a world first, and since then, organisations across the city have continued to advocate for the health and social needs of people who use drugs. In this film, we go behind the scenes of organisations including CRESCER, GAT, and Ares do Pinhal, who are all working on different ways to provide hepatitis C testing and treatment for some of Lisbon’s most marginalised communities of people who use drugs.

Health, well-being and the use of substances in prison. Belgian results of the PRS-20 project 2021-2023

By: Els Plettinckx, Lies Gremeaux (Sciensano), Nina Harth, Stefaan De Smet & Nicky Dirkx (HOGENT, Belgium)

Description: Prison settings are an important source of data for studying the characteristics and number of people who use drugs. This video describes the results of research that was conducted in Belgian prisons between 2021-22, as part of a broader EU-funded project PRS-20. The general objective was to assess the current situation and drug-related needs of people living in prison and after release. The video describes the methods of the study, with sections on findings on health, substance use and the association between the two.

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Category 2: Highlighting impactful lived experience

Living On Episode 2, “Family” (Winner of the 1st prize in Category 2)

By: Danya Fast (University of British Columbia, Canada) & Kali-olt Sedgemore (British Columbia Centre on Substance Use)

Description: The Living On film project allows young people who use drugs to author and illustrate their own stories about drug use, recovery, care, overdose and living through loss in the context of the North American toxic drug supply emergency. Imagined in collaboration with the youth narrator, these short films allow young people to author and illustrate their own stories about drug use, recovery, care, overdose and living through loss. They move beyond familiar images of drug use in order to develop alternative visual vocabularies for telling these stories. “Family” explores how things come together and fall apart as new families are created over time.

Coffee Break (Winner of the 2nd prize in Category 2)

By: Juan Carlos Ocampo (University of Sheffield, UK), Hugh Mann Adamson & Gabriel Fernández-Gil (ENON Films)

Description: A young woman struggles to get support from family and society to address her coffee drinking in a world where coffee is a criminalised drug. Instead, she is ostracised, persecuted, fired from her job, kicked out of her home, and driven away from health services. This short film creatively portrays evidence-supported harms of criminalisation but does so with coffee as an analogy. It aims to encourage people who do not use criminalised drugs to think about compassionate and effective drug policy that is not based on criminalisation.

I Can’t Help Myself! (Winner of the 3rd prize in Category 2)

By: Gianluca Bonomo (independent film-maker, UK)

Description: This video art piece was created in collaboration with visual artist Julia Maddison. It was premiered in London in 2022 as part of a site-specific exhibition called “the drinkers’ body”. “Piece For Noise & Human Body” is based on real life experience. It visualises the intimate struggle of an artist heavy drinker whose body appears inextricably attached to the ground. The viewer is invited to explore the intimate uneasiness of the artist through extreme close ups of her body while the sounds and noises genuinely recorded by Julia and myself become the only minimalist soundscape in the video.

Big Brother Leo (Winner of the WAVE Community Impact Special Award)

By: Marilyn Plata, Von Ramiro Plata, Hiraya Marie Plata, Roberto Dela Cruz & Leo Sandajan (Caritas Manila-Sanlakbay)

Description: This video shows how a faith-based, community drug rehabilitation program in Manila was able to help Leo Sandajan, a heavy drug user for 30 years, with 4 children to support, to find his way. He’s now 7 years sober and is an active volunteer to help others with their journey towards recovery. There is now an interest in the Philippines to gather data on the effectiveness of this rehabilitation program. We firmly believe PWUD can recover effectively if there is a community who will journey with them, no matter how many times he/she may fail to stay sober, cultivating hope and courage while navigating through the process of healing. We listened to Leo, worked with him and he is now our number one asset.

To watch the video please see:

this page of the Web Archive OUTCAST REGISTRATION.

Esma Bronkovič – Double Feature (Winner of the WAVE Special Award for Innovative Creative Expression)

By: Ulrike Möntmann & Stefanie Elias (University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria), with Esma Bronkovič (Prisoner, Austrian detention centre)

Description: Esma Bronkovič (*2000, AT), imprisoned in Austria for drug-related offences until 2025, is the author/performer of the rap song in this video. This medium offers her a way of authentically voicing her concerns and melding the conflicted interior world of her conscience with the exterior reality in prison. Through this performative sharing of her experience, she addresses the mental impact of incarceration and her internalised guilt towards her parents, gives glimpses of her religious belief system and draws the viewer in with her honest portrayal of the effects of addiction and imprisonment.

Learn more about the arts-based research project parrhesia : The Risky Activity of Speaking Up and Speaking Out and see all biographers from 12 European countries.  

 

Connecting with Care – Greece

By: Conor Ashleigh (Visual Storyteller,  International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users – INHSU)

Description: While most famous for its pristine beaches and azure oceans, Athens, in Greece, is also renowned for its nimble harm reduction movement, led by a dedicated group of clinicians, advocates, community members and policymakers. In just a few short years, the country has established a hostel for the most vulnerable street-based people who use drugs, a drug consumption room, and the ability to distribute naloxone. In this film, we go behind the scenes of these new services and meet the team who made them happen, and the people whose lives have been positively impacted.

Free Republic of Monar. From ruins to recovery

By: Damian Sobczyk & Jan Szymański (Mestosław, Polish Drug Policy Network)

Description: Monar, today’s largest rehabilitation NGO in Poland, was founded in 1978 during the communist times. It currently runs over 150 facilities offering unique strategies and methods in treating addiction, which raises the question: would it be a successful model to implement in other European countries? Many who find themselves facing addiction problems only receive incomplete information about the possibility of such state-run inpatient facilities, seen as “old methods” of addiction treatment. This film briefly presents the origins, philosophy and peer-practitioners of the Monar initiative in Poland, to counteract misinformation and highlight the possibilities in that field.

My Choice

By: Conor Ashleigh (Visual Storyteller,  International Network on Health and Hepatitis in Substance Users – INHSU)

Description: Forms of OAT in Australia include methadone, buprenorphine & long-acting injectable buprenorphine. The factors influencing someone’s choice are nuanced and can change over time due to evolving priorities. Various GPs and prescribers across Australia are calling for more choice to be given, for more funding to be allocated, and for pharmacies to play a more proactive role. Ultimately, what works for one person may not work for another. The My Choice film showcases diverse experiences of individuals around Australia accessing different available forms of opioid agonist therapy (OAT), or who choose not to receive OAT at all. It also features perspectives from General Practitioners (GPs), OAT prescribers, and other professionals involved in drug treatment policy or programs.

Living On Episode 3, “Home”

By: Danya Fast (University of British Columbia) & Kali-olt Sedgemore (British Columbia Centre on Substance Use)

Description: The Living On film project allows young people who use drugs to author and illustrate their own stories about drug use, recovery, care, overdose and living through loss in the context of the North American toxic drug supply emergency. Imagined in collaboration with the youth narrator, these short films allow young people to author and illustrate their own stories about drug use, recovery, care, overdose and living through loss. They move beyond familiar images of drug use in order to develop alternative visual vocabularies for telling these stories. “Home” focuses on the sense of home that can be found in another person (even when they are gone), and how tremendous loss can be tied to new beginnings.

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Runners-up in the WAVE Video Contest

watch this space…