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The Encore Presentation of Damage Done: A Drug War Odyssey Airs at 7 PM on Sat. March 03 as part of “Global Currents”; A new Series of Social Issue Documentaries.
By Hempology | March 2, 2007
Instead of making sweeping statements about the drug war, Damage Done works on a human level — focusing on the transformation of former drug-fighting cops.
Halifax-based imX Communications and the NFB’s Atlantic Studio have completed production on Damage Done: A Drug War Odyssey. The one-hour documentary, written and directed by Connie Littlefield, is the first to focus on a group of cops whose years of experience in fighting the war on drugs has turned them into crusaders for legalization.
They may be Libertarians, Republicans, Socialists, or evangelical Christians, but the one thing they all have in common is their conviction that the war on drugs is a terrible mistake. They include LEAP Board member Canadian Constable John Gayder, who is one of the founders of LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. It includes 18-year veteran and LEAP’s Education Specialist Howard Wooldridge, who rode a one-eyed horse across America while wearing his trademark cowboy hat and a t-shirt emblazoned with “Cops Say Legalize Drugs. Ask Me Why.” The film also features LEAP Speaker Cele Castillo, who spent 12 years with the US Drug Enforcement Administration — until a friendly weekly soccer match between agents and members of a local drug cartel made him realize that the drug war was all a game.
“All these guys underwent striking transformations,” says Littlefield. “One minute they were ordinary cops, paid to enforce the law: then they each had an epiphany that changed them forever.”
Development on The Damage Done was an odyssey of its own. Finally, it was finally picked up by Global in March — for late October delivery! That left a few short weeks to organize a shoot that took the crew– including Littlefield and Halifax cinematographer Kyle Cameron– to locations across North America. They went from the Rio Grande, where there was abundant evidence of smuggling a mere 20 feet from the US-Mexico border; to Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside, home of Canada’s first legal safe injection site; to New York City with cop icon Frank Serpico; and to the halls of Parliament with LEAP Speaker Senator Larry Campbell, a former drug cop, coroner, and mayor of Vancouver. Now a member of Canada’s Senate, he continues to fight for an end to drug prohibition.
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