In 2014, San Francisco had its first REEL Recovery Film Festival. We were thrilled to be a part of this pioneering event and also, to enter a film of our own in the contest.
We were excited to release the Serenity Prayer at the festival, but didn’t know what the reception would be like. Would the story connect with others in recovery? Would the visuals impact others the way they moved us emotionally?
BEST OF SHOW
With great excitement, we learned that the judges did find the work inspirational and asked to take it on tour to REEL Recovery Film Festivals across the country.
More recently, Serenity Prayer won “Best of Show” at another festival where one of the judges said “this short film is great both technically & in storytelling. What a great story arch, even showing that doing the right thing later, still doesn’t mean a perfect ride to the end. It’s hard, no matter how strong you can become. Nobody is bullet proof.”
A GRIPPING STORY
While we were happy to learn that the Serenity Prayer earned praised by the film critics, we were even more thrilled to learn that it had reached into the hearts of several in the audience and caused them to see addiction and recovery from a new perspective. One lady who was in the audience at the first screening said that she found herself relating to the scene where the child was taken away from the father.
“That was me,” she said. “I remember when I took away my son from my ex-husband because of his addiction.” She told us that she had never seen just what the experience must have been like from his persective—what it must have felt like to lose control of everything that truly mattered in his life to the point of losing custody of his only son.
FINDING HOPE FROM PAIN
While the directors were clear that they didn’t want to create a “fairy tale,” they also didn’t want to leave the viewer with a sense of despair, either. “The road to recovery is difficult,” director Matt Roth explains, but there is hope for restoration.”
Did you watch the Serenity Prayer short film? What part of the story stood out to you? Which part did you connect with?