The Hayti Heritage Center presents the screening of “The House I Live In,” sponsored by the Southern Strategy Coalition.
Filmed in more than twenty states, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America’s longest war—a definitive portrait revealing its profound human rights implications.
The film recognizes the seriousness of drug abuse as a matter of public health, and investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have meant this symptom is most often treated as a cause for law enforcement, creating a vast machine that largely feeds on America’s poor, and especially on minority communities.
Beyond simple misguided policy, the film examines how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for 40 years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures.
Melinda Shopsin, produces the film. She began her producing career at Radical Media in London. She then served as production coordinator for the BBC film THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER and became Executive in Charge of Production at Charlotte Street Films. In that capacity, she was head of development on the 2006 film WHY WE FIGHT (winner of the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and a Peabody Award), co-produced the Emmy award-winning 2011 film REAGAN for HBO and just finished Producing THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (winner of the 2012 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival) for the BBC and ITVS.
The screening will be held at the Hayti Heritage Center (804 Old Fayetteville Street, Durham), in the historic St. Joseph’s Performance Hall, on February 7th at 7pm (doors open at 6:30). Community discussion with Hon. Elaine Bushfan, James Williams, Hon. James Woodhall, and Nia Wilson, and moderated by Asha Bandelewill will follow the film.
