An essential documentary given the dominance of headlines chronicling a new heroin epidemic, Laura Naylor’s The Fix, currently screening at AFI Docs, is a simple and powerful recovery narrative. Its subject is Junior, a 34-year old from the Bronx who is committed to turn his life around when given a second chance. Living in a shelter and managing his hepatitis via a caring staff, this is a success story — for now.
Director Laura Naylor focuses her lens on a Bronx methadone clinic that also treats Hepatitis C before she had discovered the story of Junior, a vocal advocate with a fascinating story to tell. As a subject he’s engaging having hit rock bottom and now living with the affliction. Estranged from his eldest daughter, he remains committed to keeping his current family intact, living in a shelter as he completes the comprehensive detox program. Naylor includes interviews with care providers, however she never quite probes them about patients that weren’t not successful. The film is perhaps politely upbeat; this isn’t to say Junior doesn’t volunteer the more gory details of his addiction.
At 72 minutes, The Fix overstays its welcome (a skilled editor and director might have been content with a short film), but it contains some truly harrowing images as Junior hits rock bottom, including a cellphone video capturing the physical effects of a heroin addiction. Finding a strong support group and broadcasting the message, Junior becomes the carrier of the message as a certified peer educator, broadcasting about treatment and prevention of Hepatitis C in his community. The fix, the film proposes or at least documents, is the excellent work political lobbying patients engage in in Albany to fund these programs, including prevention, education and treatment.
In its exploration, it shines a light on the institutions that are working (while it’s less critical of the ones that create the cycle). Perhaps it’ll take a sociologist to explain flesh out the broader picture of addiction, exploring the darkness lurking in these communities. Inspiring and useful, much in the way Junior broadcasts his message, the film is a mouthpiece for a worthy cause. While engaging, at times I wish the emphasis was less on Junior and more on the community around him.
The Fix is currently screening at AFI Docs.