Fix: The Story of an Addicted City

The controversial crusade to establish a safe injection site for drug users in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside — support for which cost long-time Vancouver mayor Philip Owen his political career — is the subject of Nettie Wild’s rousing Fix: The Story of an Addicted City, the second Wild film to win the Genie for Best Documentary Feature. “Forget the unwieldy title and worthy subject matter, this is a breathless piece of reportage, like a vintage New Yorker feature put to film: expansive, comic, digressive and ever so slightly demented. Fix is structured like a classic three-act play, with action and character propelling the narrative” (Paul Isaacs, Eye Weekly). The real-life drama centres on Dean Wilson, an IBM salesman turned junkie who is an outspoken advocate for change in the notorious Vancouver neighbourhood; and Ann Livingston, a clean-living Christian with a confrontational bent who heads the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) — and who may be romantically involved with Wilson. They gain an unlikely ally in conservative Mayor Owen, a pillar of the Vancouver establishment, who becomes convinced, to his political peril, of the need for progressive drug policy reform. “Fix features intimate and provocative footage, digitally shot by Wild herself along with Kirk Tougas and edited into a powerful whole by Reginald Harkema” (Vancouver I.F.F.). “An engrossing documentary” (Variety). Colour, 35mm. 93 mins.