Product Description

This focuses on the relationship between alix a young homeless addict and digna a successful photographer in manhattans lower eastside. When digna discovers alix unconcious on the stairs of her building she steps in and offers to help despite her own fears and their emotional and ethical cores are tested. Studio: Arts Alliance America Release Date: 08/14/2007 Starring: Ana Reeder Michael Hyatt Run time: 94 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41072 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-22
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Customer Reviews

Life Changing
I am going to a class for drug and alcohol abuse.
This film was shown, and it had the whole class quite.
Even the men in the class stayed and talked after the
film,which most the time is not the case. I remembered
the day my daughter and I talked on the phone, she
was out of her mind after a two day binge on x and I don't
know what esle. I am thankful, that was a day of change
for her life. I think this is a great film to share with
your teenage children, let them see the affects of drugs.
I felt as if I were living in the shoes of a young woman
addicted to drugs. Thank you for supporting independent
films, if there was an Oscar for Life Changing films
I am sure this would be a winner.

Why can't more movies have this depth?
I can't say enough good things! Well-made movie that kept me hanging on to the edge of my seat to the last minute. The ending had me thinking about the movie for days making me re-evaluate my own life and struggles with drugs. It's so hard to change destructive habits, "How does one change? What has to happen for one who has no control to find control?" Never before have I seen such realism in depicting the devastation of heroin addiction. Thank you for showing a part of my life in this gritty labor of love. Heroin is death!

So utterly convincing...
The storyline is the type of thing you find on a Lifetime Network Special or a straight-to-television movie trying to warn about the dangers of drug addiction, but this movie goes so far beyond that. It's not like it adds zany warped realities like Requiem for a Dream or it has some sort of narration keeping the audience completely informed that "this is what you should fear to be", it does everything so much simpler than that: It sits back and lets the actors eat the audience's collective heart out.

The drama in this film is SO UTTERLY CONVINCING. The performances get first prize for portrayals that, even when you want to try and find something wrong with it (I'm guessing this film might be considered too sentimental by some), keep the drama serious and prominent, not allowing the audience to let go of their suspension of disbelief. If it wasn't for the production quality, it would seem like this was a documentary and these were real people. And it's not just Ana and Michael, the two main characters, it's everyone, from the boyfriends to the crack addicts that have two seconds of screen time to everyone.

Secondly, the cinematography and editing are very well tuned to excellence. This movie definitely has the feel of an independent film, but more than that it doesn't have that "Look at me, I'm independent!" feel. Skewed angles and purposeful jump cuts exist stylistically in the film, but they come at the right times and are completely necessary, versus what tends to happen in a lot of independent cinema where the camera becomes relatively self-conscious and goes places it needn't. For example, the hand-held quality of this film is almost invisible, while some independent films tend to show off their independence via hand-held in a wannabe cinema-verite sort of conceit.

It's disappointing that I haven't heard anything about this film before. I literally picked it up because it was the first movie on the first row of the first aisle to rent because I wanted to surprise myself, and whadyaknow but it happened to be a real gem! I hope it builds a bigger audience because it deserves to be recognized.

--PolarisDiB