Mathew Embry is hoping to change some minds when it comes to addiction.
The film maker directed Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis, and he will be in Prince George on Tuesday night when the documentary is screened at University of Northern British Columbia's Weldwood Theatre, 6 p.m. start.
"What we're trying to do is challenge the stigma that surrounds addiction," he said Friday in a telephone interview. "We're trying to show that this opioid crisis is something that affects all of us, in all communities, no matter your gender, your socio-economic status, your ethnicity.
"It crosses into all parts of our society."
To that end, Embry said the film follows a number of families who are dealing with addiction as well as front-line workers and experts such as doctors and pharmacists who can speak to the problem at a high level.
"We try to engage the viewer through human stories but at the same time educate them in regards to what's happening and hopefully what can be done," he said.
Thanks to the mainstream media, Embry contends the image of the junkie shooting up on the street has come to symbolize the crisis. Along with unfortunate connotations - Embry takes issue with the term junkie - he said it fails to show just how widespread the problem is and the manifest forms it has taken.
Above all, he wants viewer to come away feeling a bit more compassionate for those caught in the trap of addiction and added childhood trauma is often at the root of such self-destructive behaviour.
"They're using drugs to ease that pain, so if we start seeing people who are struggling with addiction as people who are in significant emotional or physical pain, rather than someone who doesn't have will power or control, we're going to rethink how we approach them," he said.
Embry is on a countrywide tour with the documentary and said it drew a strong turnout and a good panel discussion when it was shown in Calgary on Thursday night.
The documentary is also available online at telus.com/painkiller and on Telus Optik TV on Demand. For every view, Telus will donate $5, up to $50,000, to organizations providing care to those impacted.
