Morel Support & Goodwill Social Club present:
LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL
a film screening, panel discussion + bannock dogs in support of SUNSHINE HOUSE
LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL is an award-winning documentary portraying a group of misfits, artists, and drug users operating a renegade safe injection site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. It is an intimate portrait of a community fighting to save lives and keep hope alive in a neighborhood ravaged by the overdose crisis with a short panel discussion to follow (TBA). As well, Bannock Dogs will be sold in the adjacent former Khao House space by members of Sunshine House - come hungry!
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 2023
TIME: Doors open @ 6pm, Film Screening @ 6:30pm, Panel Discussion at 8pm
LOCATION: The Goodwill Social Club @ 625 Portage Avenue
COST: $10 or PWYC with all proceeds to support Sunshine House. No one turned away for lack of funds.
>> BUY ADVANCE TICKETS HERE <<
Pay What You Can tickets will be available at the door
The Goodwill Social Club is a physically accessible location with gender-neutral washrooms. The film will be screened with Closed Captioning for increased accessibility, and seating will be available. Harm reduction supplies will be available. For additional safety and accessibility concerns, please e-mail manager@thegoodwill.ca or hello@morel-support.com.
This event is licensed and 18+, and is sponsored by Morel Support and The Goodwill Social Club.
About Sunshine House:
Sunshine House is a peer-led, not-for-profit community drop-in and resource centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba that focuses on harm reduction and social inclusion. In addition to providing programming that fulfills people's social, community, and recreational needs, they also operate Winnipeg's first and only mobile overdose prevention site (MOPS) which offers supervised overdose prevention, drug testing, information, harm reduction supplies, and referal services. While Health Canada has provided Sunshine House some basic funding to cover some labour and supplies, in-house fundraising efforts allowed for the purchase of the RV as well as ongoing operations and investments. This includes the recent purchase of a mobile spectrometer: an expensive piece of drug-testing equipment that tests for fentanyl, benzodiazepines and hundreds of other compounds to help to protect drug users from an increasingly toxic drug supply.
A federal Urgent Public Health Needs exemption from Health Canada under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act currently allows for MOPS to provide these life saving services, but a new bill, introduced by the province of Manitoba on March 14, 2023, now threatens its' existence. Bill 33: The Addictions Services Act would place needless additional licensing and inspection restrictions on an already underfunded, overextended not-for-profit public and community health service, contrary to best evidence-based practices.
To learn more about the MOPS initiative and Sunshine House, click here.
About the Film:
As the number of overdose deaths in Vancouver, Canada reaches an all-time high, the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS) opens its doors—a renegade supervised drug consumption site that primarily employs active and former drug users. Its staff and volunteers save lives and give hope to a marginalized community as the overdose crisis rages throughout Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The film follows Sarah, an activist who opened OPS without government approval, as she strives to raise awareness about the crisis; Trey, a graffiti artist and former heroin user who spends his days reversing overdoses and memorializing lost community members; Ronnie, a seasoned frontline worker nicknamed “Narcan Jesus,” struggling with burnout from the demanding work and witnessing so much loss; Norma, a much-loved Indigenous elder in the community, who cooks meals for the staff when she’s not administering naloxone; and Dana, an active fentanyl user who constantly reverses overdoses at work while struggling with his own drug use. With loved ones dying in unprecedented numbers, the staff at OPS does whatever it takes to save lives and find radical new ways out of the devastating but widely ignored crisis ravaging their community. Love in the Time of Fentanyl is an intimate, observational look beyond the stigma of people who use drugs, revealing the courage of those facing tragedy in a neighborhood often referred to as ground zero of the overdose crisis.
To learn more about the film, click here.
Panel Discussion:
TBD.