In yesterday’s blog post, I provided links and summaries for the ten main films edited from my Recovery Voices conversation with Marcus Fair, Founder of Eternal Media in North Wales. I provided a link to Marcus’s People page posted over the weekend.
I also edited the conversation into short (generally less than three minutes) Theme clips which are available in total as a YouTube Playlist (30 films, totalling 61 mins 57 secs). Here are the individual films that make up this Playlist:
1. Picking Up Needles [1’43”]
‘They’ve worked so hard to get clean…. They’ve found their return ticket from hell. And don’t ask [them] to go and pick up needles in a park. We can do more than that.’
2. Freedom [1’07”]
‘Freedom from active addiction, freedom from the chemist. Freedom from police, freedom from services. Freedom from prisons and methadone scripts, and having to lie. All these freedoms that we enjoy in recovery. And all the shackles that we had in addiction.’
3. Life in Addiction [1’41”]
‘In a nutshell my life has been heroin and crack addiction, vast swathes of homelessness, prison sentences, lots and lots of violence, and just pure abject, distilled misery.’
4. There Was Nowhere Left To Go [2’27”]
‘But my high in the end became overdose. It wasn’t really about the drug so much anymore, it was about the oblivion.’
5. Prison Saved Me [2’30”]
‘There was no stopping me. The judicial system stopped me. And I loved it. I loved my last prison sentence. Once they found out I had some film experience, I became the jail’s filmmaker.’
6. Back Onto Heroin [1’19”]
‘My addiction had been in deep freeze. It hadn’t been addressed. I hadn’t done any headwork on it whatsoever. No cognitive change… So I came out, went straight back onto heroin, very soon became homeless.’
7. A Man Is Going To Die [2’02”]
‘Nobody was going to give me rehab. I wasn’t a safe bet. When there are limited places and rehab was so expensive, they have to prioritise to people who might have a chance. And I didn’t, as far as they were concerned… and probably as far as I was concerned.’
8. What Worked For Me [0’48”]
‘Over 25 years I have had an army of counsellors, police, lawyers, family, friends… everyone was telling me how to get clean. But until I went to this rehab, which was staffed by people in recovery, that it was only then that I was shown to get clean and stay clean.’
9. Lifting My Guilt and Shame [2’38”]
‘No-one had like put it that way for me before. It was a real moment for me. I came out like, you know, walking taller and “Oh right, yeh!’… And I think only an addict could have put it that way.’
10. Always A Backup Plan [1’44”]
‘As addicts… there always had to be a backup plan, there always had to be a plan B, C, right down to Z, because there were so many problems in your day as an addict.’
11. Developing Eternal Media [2’22”]
‘Open up my email and see a call sheet… And I’m reading it and [it says] ,“Marcus Fair, Director of Photography.” That’s one step down from the Director. At the top it says, “MGM Studios, Beverley Hills, California.”’
12. Transferable Skills [1’51”]
Marcus describes how someone in addiction can write themselves off, long before society does the same. But it is important that they realise they have transferable skills from their addiction.
13. 100% Trust Straightaway [0’44”]
‘We kind of work on trust is lost here. You don’t earn trust, you lose trust.’
14. The Bunker, Wrexham [2’24”]
Marcus describes the history of Eternal Media’s home, a 1960s cold war nuclear bunker outside Wrexham, both during and after it served its original purpose.
15. Eternal Media’s Home [1’45”]
Marcus describes one of their buildings, which can be a cinema, recording studio, rehearsal space, photography studio, TV studio, or a community classroom.
16. Recovery In Focus, Part 1 [2’58”]
‘We skill people up to use a camera phone really, really well, to get some really good shots on it. So we go through different rules of composition, lighting, support people in that, getting them thinking differently.’
17. Recovery In Focus, Part 2 [2’47”]
‘At the end of it, they’ll decide which one—one photo representing their addiction and one their recovery—will go into an exhibition. The thing about addicts is that we can’t have one of anything. So trying to get somebody to submit just one, actually choose one, is actually an ordeal.’
18. Recovery Through Osmosis [2’11”]
‘One thing I’ve noticed about recovery if that it works through osmosis…. If I’m around positively charged people, I start to think positively.’
19. There Is Life After Addiction [1’34”]
‘I just want to be around people that are happy, clean, positively-charged and a bit naughty. I didn’t get clean to be angel. There’s enough angels out there.’
20. So Now What? [2’32”]
‘You get clean, now what? Absolutely, it’s like jumping out of a hot air balloon. At the beginning, you’re just flailing around because you’ve got no air speed. And after a while, once you start getting the air speed, you can get some direction.’
21. Therapeutic Effects of Eternal Media [3’45”]
‘But the other skills they are getting are all being fed in under the radar, the confidence, the self-esteem. The sense of worthlessness is going. You know, that self-loathing that us addicts have had in addiction. It’s overwhelming that self-loathing. And that kind of goes and people don’t even know. All they know is that they had a great day out with a film crew on a shoot…’
22. Funding Eternal Media [3’21”]
‘You would think that society would want people coming back into their community crime-free, drug-free and helping people…. For every addict that gets clean, there’s a whole community that benefits from that.’
23. A Fairy Godmother… If Only [2’14”]
’85 to 90% of my time is spent in The Bunker here either pitching for work, writing proposals or putting a bid together, rather than actually doing what I set Eternal up to do and actually work with people and help turn lives around. Like someone helped me, like lots of people have helped me.’
24. Very Surreal [2’59”]
‘So you’ve got an addict of 25 years meets a Police Assistant Chief Constable… we kind of challenge each other to make this film [Flipped It!]’
25. Involved With Eternal Media [1’33”]
Marcus describes key people, leaders in their respective fields and including BAFTA-winning film editor Peter Norrey, who have played important roles in Eternal Media.
26. A True Recovery Champion [1’39”]
‘Simon [Shaw] was an incredible Recovery Champion. He got it. He was in charge of, I don’t know, £138,000,000 of North Wales police budget…. He is a great humanitarian. And he is the most ethical man I’ve ever met, and he taught me so much and continues to.’
27. A Film of the Eternal Media Story? [1’53”]
Marcus responds to David’s question, based on the latter’s desire to see Eternal Media making a film about their and Marcus’s extraordinary story, by saying he spends most of his time chasing funding just to keep them afloat. He would love to make such a film. David wishes Eternal could be funded to do that.
28. North Wales Recovery Communities [0’51”]
‘I find any excuse I can to go to down to Bangor… I just love it. I just love what they [North Wales Recovery Communities] built down there.’
29. Podcasting in Prison [2’44”]
‘But they [the inmates] don’t get to meet anybody in recovery. So when we came in, we were absolutely mobbed…. The amount of questions they had for us about so many things.’
30. People Helping Each Other Get Well [1’33”]
‘It’s going to be split between the Recovery Community of North Wales and people recovering in prison. What I’m trying to do is bridge that gap between the inside and outside recovery community.’
Marcus’s Theme Clips YouTube Playlist
Marcus’s Personal Story is extraordinary, the story of Eternal Media totally inspiring. Here is Marcus’s biography:
Marcus Fair survived a 25-year addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. His first paid gig was as a playwright, before he relapsed and ended up in prison again. There, he realised that his life was being saved by him doing the prison radio and some filming. If this could happen to him, it could do a lot for other people. He planned what he could do to help others. He made a film, Flipped It!, for North Wales Police which was widely acclaimed. He set up Eternal Media, which makes high impact documentary films and empowers and mentors volunteer film crews, which comprise people who are rebuilding their lives whilst recovering from addiction and/or an involvement in crime.
The photo at the top is of Marcus (left) and Lucke Gabriel, Head of Post Production at Eternal Media, outside The Bunker.