In Vancouver, Alex, from the Nisga’a Nation, talks about the abuse and violence that drove him to take his first drink. Paula, a Woodland Cree woman, started shooting up at age 11; soon, the only way to support her habit was as a sex worker. As a five-year-old girl, Desirae was put into foster care; now as an adult with her own kids, she struggles to break the generational cycle of addiction. Aboriginal writer/director Dennis Allen’s raw and honest exploration of substance abuse among First Nations communities begins in his own childhood, when, according to him, “people were drinking hairspray, they were drinking solvents. I understand it too, because I’m an alcoholic.... How can anyone understand us, if we don’t tell our story?”

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