The six films featured in this special screening are a selection of those shortlisted for the 2018 Recovery Street Film Festival. Each year, the festival invites people with lived experience of recovery from addiction to enter a three minute film about their experiences. The result is a series of vastly contrasting and uniquely creative portrayals of the journey back to a life without drugs or alcohol. The films are in turn witty and poignant, heartening and heart-breaking, inspirational and awe-inspiring.  

The films present a little-seen side to the story of addiction, telling tales of determination, vulnerability and courage that are full of highs and lows and display unwavering realism and candour. We see the challenges and pitfalls that threaten to derail and hear accounts of family ties broken and then mended.

Dr Sally Marlow, Public Engagement Champion for the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, will chair a panel featuring some of the filmmakers and festival coordinators, to lead a discussion on the issues raised by the films and to explore the role of the arts in wellbeing and recovery.  

The screening will be followed by an opportunity to meet and talk to others including the panel members over refreshments.