Project Detail

Chasing Dad: A Lifelong Addiction

Synopsis

An original and compelling documentary depicting one father’s long-term struggle with heroin addiction, told through the uniquely intimate perspective of his own son.
After years of acrimony and estrangement, young film-maker Phillip Wood seeks out his father to try and understand what’s happened to him. But his father is now seriously ill and over the next few months Phillip’s visits force both to confront some uncomfortable truths about their past.
This documentary offers a strikingly stark exploration into a subject that significantly affected the film-maker's childhood. An intimate, revealing documentary which shows addiction from a different side and challenges assumptions about how families can rebuild their broken relationships.

Details

Year: 2016
Type of project: Features
Running time: 59 mins
Format: Digital HD 1080p
Director: Phillip Wood 1st Feature
Producer: Phillip Wood
Executive Producer: Peter Dale, Jane Treays
Director of Photography: Phillip Wood
Sound: Phillip Wood
Composer: Sami El-Enany
Film Image: ©Phillip Wood, BBC

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Rare Day

Visit Website

www.rareday.co.uk

Sales Company

Janet Smyth

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Going behind the doors of the private world of a residential rehabilitation centre in Somerset, this powerful documentary uncovers what is done to help people beat their addictions and start rebuilding their lives, through a series of intimate encounters at Broadway Lodge. From Phillip Wood, the film-maker behind the acclaimed BBC documentary, 'Chasing Dad', we meet people who come from different situations and parts of the UK who all have one thing in common: to seek a new beginning here. Observing the relationships formed between staff, clients and their families, the film explores how desperate and difficult it is for people to transform themselves when funding is scarce and emotions are running high.

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