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TIFF: Love in the Time of Fentanyl

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Welcome

Welcome to our 2023 series of films, presented through the continued partnership between TIFF, The Puffin Foundation Ltd., PBS, and Indie Lens Pop-Up, a neighborhood series that brings people together for film screenings and community-driven conversations. Featuring PBS Independent Lens documentaries, Indie Lens Pop-Up brings residents, leaders, and organizations together to discuss what matters most, from newsworthy topics and social issues, to family and community relationships.

ABOUT "LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL"

As deaths in Vancouver, Canada reach an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society opens its doors—a renegade supervised drug consumption site that employs active and former drug users. Its staff and volunteers do whatever it takes to save lives and give hope to a marginalized community in this intimate documentary that looks beyond the stigma of people who use fentanyl and other drugs.

ABOUT "21: MERCER COUNTY"

Following a lifelong battle with addiction, Stacey Ross became sober at age 44 and is committed to helping others do the same as a certified peer recovery specialist providing resources for treatment and mentorship to young women.

ABOUT TIFF

With the support of the nonprofit organization Puffin Foundation, Ltd., a small group of dedicated volunteers set out, more than 15 years ago, to create an event that would present a collection of compelling and imaginative feature-length films, documentaries, and shorts from a variety of cultures that would lead audiences to question, debate, and become caring and involved citizens who recognize the need to institute positive change. TIFF has found its niche on the film festival circuit, and, having been dubbed by the Star-Ledger, “the film festival with a social conscience,” is growing in reputation as well as numbers.

Video Descriptions

OVEE TitleCard

10 MIN

TIFF Coming Soon

Trailer | Storming Caesars Palace

After losing her job as a hotel worker in Las Vegas, Ruby Duncan joined a welfare rights group of mothers who defied notions of the “welfare queen.” In a fight for guaranteed income, Ruby and other equality activists took on the Nevada mob in organizing a massive protest that shut down Caesars Palace.

JL Intro LITTOF (Copy)

21: Mercer County

LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL

LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL - IL Pop Up

JL Outro LITTOF

60 minutes

Moderator

Teaneck International Film Festival

Participants

Anthony Torres
Founder, Bergen County LGBTQ+ Alliance
Anthony Torres holds two bachelor’s degrees in psychology, one from Ramapo College and one from London Metropolitan UK. Mr. Torres earned a master’s degree in public administration from FDU and interned at the United Nations with the Unitarian Universalist Association Office. Mr. Torres received most of his trauma related experience by working in Maudsley Hospital, London's largest mental health training institution. Then, Mr. Torres continued to work with survivors with Bergen County Sexual Assault Resource Center HealingSPACE. Currently, Mr. Torres works at New Jersey Buddies Bergen County HIV resource center as a Community Health Worker. He also works with David Stuart, the person who first coined the term Chemsex and helped create London’s 56 Dean Street Sexual Health Clinic. He belongs to Davids Chemsex Vienna International group. Anthony is now focusing his efforts on opening Bergen County’s first LGBTQ+ Center along with his husband Nick O’Neill.
Colin Askey
Director
Colin Askey is a filmmaker who has spent the last decade documenting the transformative impact of humane policy on the lives of people who use drugs. Recent work includes HAVEN (2019), an award-winning short documentary about North America’s first prescription heroin therapy program in Vancouver and his current film, LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL, which premiered at the 2022 Doxa Documentary Film Festival where it won the Colin Low Award for Best Canadian Director.
Dinah Ortiz
Co-Chair, Urban Survivors Union
Dinah dedicates most of her time advocating to end the stigma faced by drug users. For over ten years, she has advocated for marginalized parents in a variety of contexts. She has appeared on dozens of panels nationwide to discuss the racial disparities in the child welfare system as well as educate doctors, lawyers, and social workers on Harm reduction methods to better serve and save lives.
Rayce Samuelson
Supervisor, OnPoint NYC
Rayce Samuelson is on the frontline of the overdose epidemic. Since graduating Lewis & Clark College in 2020 he has dedicated his time to pursuing harm reduction and direct human service. He is currently the supervisor of the first sanctioned Overdose Prevention Center in the United States at OnPoint NYC.
Stacey Ross
Addiction Recovery Advocate
Stacey Ross is a recovery advocate whose rise above addiction has led her into a life of helping others do the same.

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