EXCLUSIVE: In the years since 2017 when the opioid epidemic was declared a public health emergency, more than half a million Americans have died of opioid overdoses, according to KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation).
The new documentary The Hotline, premiering Friday at the True/False Fest, examines this ongoing crisis through the lens of “an anonymous phone line that serves as a fragile tether between life and death.”
The short film (36 min.) is directed by award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Jesse Sweet. Simon Kilmurry serves as executive producer.
“With intimate access to people fighting addiction, The Hotline creates a haunting yet deeply human portrait of the opioid crisis in America,” notes a description of the film. “Callers—each voice raw, and unfiltered— share moments of despair, loss, recovery and resilience. Filmed across the U.S., the film drops into the lives of opioid users and hotline operators—people in recovery, people who have suffered terrible losses from addiction and people struggling with addiction.”
The description continues, “Fragments of people’s very private lives are revealed, coming together to form a powerful portrait of opioid addiction, one that doesn’t discriminate by profession, location or wealth. The collection of stories are snapshots captured of peoples’ most vulnerable moments as they put their lives in the hands of strangers. These voices, though disconnected, begin to form a collective narrative that transcends individual experience. What emerges is not just a portrait of a crisis, but also of quiet hope found in connection, in honesty, and in the courage to keep calling. As the hotline operators track callers in real time, they must stay on the line, offering calm, compassion, and a lifeline—ready to send EMS the moment silence falls. The operators often race against time as overdoses unfold mid-call.”
Stern’s directing credits include Reversing Roe, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, and The Devil Came on Horseback. In a statement, she suggested the opioid crisis wasn’t an abstraction to her.
“Over the years, I have lost several close friends to addiction and overdose,” Stern said. “More recently my husband and daughter, who have been working as EMTs, have shared their first-hand accounts of the devastating effects of fentanyl and opioid overdoses. My interest in this subject led me to the opioid hotline Never Use Alone. I was struck by the operators’ compassion and non-judgmental acceptance they had for the callers. There is an immediate intimacy formed when someone calls a stranger to watch over them and entrusts them with their life.”
Sweet’s directing credits include City of Joel, Nature of the Crime, and This Emotional Life.
“As a child of the 80’s, my first exposure to drugs were PSA’s and government warnings that painted people who used substances as weak-willed, indulgent or somehow flawed,” Sweet commented. “When Ricki Stern introduced me to ‘Never Use Alone’ – I was moved by their powerful philosophy of bypassing blame and shame and instead focusing on the thing that matters: solutions to keep people alive.”
In addition to Friday’s world premiere, The Hotline will screen on Saturday at True/False. Both screenings are part of the festival’s Dangerous Curves shorts program.
The 23rd edition of True/False runs March 5-8 in Columbia, MO. For the full lineup, click here.
English (US) ·