FIX: THE STORY OF AN ADDICTED CITY
Dir. Nettie Wild | Canada 2002 | 92min.

IN PERSON: DIRECTOR NETTIE WILD

Dean Wilson used to be an IBM salesman. Now he is possibly the most outspoken drug addict in Canada. As president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) he is a loud and articulate advocate for street addicts from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods, and the site of the highest HIV rate in North America. He demands that Vancouver open North America’s first safe injection site – the most controversial step of a daring new drug strategy. Users, residents, activists and police clash while Dean struggles to shake his addiction and discovers an unlikely ally in Vancouver’s conservative mayor.

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Nettie Wild is as much an advocate as an activist; the quixotic figure behind a series of profound and controversial political documentaries that have earned acclaim around the world. Coming from a background in journalism and theatre, Wild eschews objectivity and takes a very definite ideological and political stance in her films. She made her feature debut with A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution (1988), which won a jury award and the People’s Choice Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, earned a Genie nomination for Best Feature Documentary and received several other international awards, and all of her subsequent films  - including Blockade (1993), A Place Called Chiapas (1998), and Fix: The Story of an Addicted City (2002) - have swept up awards and courted controversy in equal measure.