The sky is the limit for Recovery Street Film Festival 2023 entries

The film festival which celebrates recovery and challenges the stigma associated with people who use drugs and alcohol, is open for submissions to its ninth annual competition.

Are you a budding filmmaker with a passion for storytelling? Recovery Street Film Festival 2023 asks filmmakers with lived experience, be it from their own experience or through a loved one, to explore its new theme, ‘The sky is the limit’.

Organisers say this theme is all about viewing recovery as a gift of opportunity. Opportunity to heal, grow, travel, find freedom, meaning, love, and kindness. Recovery journeys can take us to places we never thought possible. The sky is the limit, so where will your film take you and your audience?

Over its nine-year history, hundreds of films have been entered into the festival competition, which have been watched by over one million people, giving people with lived experience a platform to share their stories with the public without shame. In 2022, organisers took the decision to extend its film competition shortlist to fifteen films, rather than the usual ten, due to the exceptionally high volume and quality of entries.

Ceri Walker, an ambassador for National Association for Children of Alcoholics (Nacoa), was the overall winner of last year’s film competition. Her stop-motion animated film, ‘Understanding the Child in Me’, explored the impact on her younger self growing up with a parent who drank too much.

During last year’s official Recovery Street Film Festival screening and award ceremony held at the Everyman Cinema in Chelsea, Ceri gave a moving speech as she accepted the award.

“Ultimately, I’m a mum without a mum and it’s 20 years next year since I lost her,” Ceri said. “These films are going to make a big difference because if people can get support without shame, it will keep them alive and it will make such a difference for generations to come.

“What I’m doing now is for my children and their children. So just keep going one day at a time. I know that I’m in this for the long haul. I know my recovery is lifelong, and I’m ok with that.”

There's a prize fund of £500 in Amazon vouchers up for grabs for the winners of the Recovery Street Film Festival 2023. The filmmaker in first place will receive a £300, second place will receive £150, and third place will receive £50. Plus, the top three entries, as decided by the festival’s esteemed judging panel, will have their travel to the official award ceremony and screening in September paid for.

John Paul Chapman, whose music video ‘My Head Feels Like a Washing Machine’ placed in the top three in 2022, recently spoke about the positive effect entering the film competition had on him and his co-creators from Chase Recovery.

“I really enjoyed it,” John Paul said, referring to the creative process of making his film. “I'd forgotten how much I liked it in the past. In the past, it was always done with a drink or a drug inside me. I wouldn't have the confidence to do something like that unless I had a drink or drug inside me. Then I would hit writer’s block and think the only way to overcome that was to take more and more drugs.

“But in the space of the year since we've done it, things have worked out incredibly. It’s indescribable really. I can't believe how much things are pushing forwards. We started a creative hub on the back of it. Music and filmmaking are a huge part of my recovery now. A massive part. And I thought I'd lost it forever.

“I couldn't remember things I wrote myself five to six years ago. But it shows it can be done. It shows it is possible no matter how hard down the scale you've gone.”

‘My Head Feels Like a Washing Machine’ was filmed on a mobile phone and edited together on an “old, knackered laptop”, according to John Paul. Films are judged on the quality of the idea, how creatively they are crafted, and how they relate to the theme, so you don’t need expensive equipment to be in with a chance of winning. People of all levels of experience are encouraged to enter and the Recovery Street Film Festival website has lots of helpful guides and tips for making a film.

The competition’s rules state that film entries should have a runtime between one to three minutes, and the sky is also the limit when it comes to the type of film you want to create. Whether you want to showcase a short drama with actors, a stop motion animation, a documentary-style piece, a personal story, a monologue, a song, a poem, or anything else you can dream up, the festival welcomes a variety of film formats.

Once the shortlist for the 2023 event is announced, screenings will take place throughout the UK during Recovery Month in community hubs, classrooms, theatres, conferences and, of course, cinemas.

But you don't have to wait for someone else to arrange a screening near you if you want to showcase the shortlisted films, challenge stigma and celebrate recovery. You can host your own screening, and it's easier than you might think. All you need is a device to show the films on, like a TV, projector, laptop, tablet, or a smartphone. Recovery Street Film Festival will share the top ten shortlisted films on their YouTube channel, making them easy for you and your audience to access.

No matter how you choose to get involved with the Recovery Street Film Festival 2023, we hope you'll join them in spreading the word about the incredible achievements of people with lived experience during Recovery Month and beyond. Let's challenge stigma and celebrate the power of recovery together.