OVERDOSED
aN uncompromising documentary on the drama of opioids and the havoc they cause on an American SMALL TOWN scale
→ Overdosed provides viewers access to the corporate, profit-driven dark side of this crisis, while revealing the core humanity of its survivors.
→ Overdosed is very raw in its style, shot by the film-maker alone to ascertain intimacy and trust with her subjects
→ At the nexus of this American tragedy Overdosed asks: Who are the true drug dealers?
PRODUCTION STATEMENT
A sense of urgency and immediacy permeates “Overdosed,” which was shot between 2017 and 2019, reflecting the filmmaker’s hyperawareness that many people’s lives were and still are at stake. It was following the death of a family member through an accidental overdose that Connolly quit her job in television and set out for West Virginia accompanied by her young daughter, unsure of what she would find but feeling that she “had to do something.” In the end, Connolly’s work discovers an intentional plan by big pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors to target susceptible impoverished communities and causing, in addition to overdoses and deaths, a cycle of under-education, unemployment, and imprisonment.
SYNOPSIS
Overdosed highlights the troubling turmoil of the deadly American opioid crisis as it unfolds in the small town of Petersburg in rural West Virginia, the state hardest hit by this epidemic. Through interviews with former drug dealers, over-prescribing doctors, DEA agents and local community members, Mary Sue Connolly uncovers a shocking narrative of the pharmaceutical industry’s intentional plan to target opioid sales to an impoverished, under-served community and the resulting addiction, prison and overdose cycles of its citizens.
| Directed by | Mary Sue Connolly |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Jim Zwers |
| Language | English |
| Location | Petersburg, West Virginia |
| Budget | 150 K USD |
DIRECTOR
Mary Sue Connolly is an Irish-born filmmaker and video editor who worked as an Editor/Producer for CNN’s New York bureau and as an Editor at CBS Television Distribution. During her time at CBS, Mary Sue edited numerous award-winning investigative reports, including the Exceptional Merit in Media Awards, the National Headliner Award, the Clarion Award and the National Press Club Award. She lives with her young daughter Meibhim and the family divides its time between Brooklyn, New York and County Waterford, Ireland.
RELEASE
TBC
