SHAME, frustration, despair. These are the words that recur when drug-addicted street kids talk about their lives. These words also evoke the feelings of the parents who are too often blamed without having a chance to be heard. Director Andrée Cazabon dedicates this film to the parents of drug addicts, delving into her own past to make it. For many months, she accompanied Cathy and Laurent, two young people in the grip of addiction. The camera unflinchingly exposes their desperate drug-fuelled lives, their sick powerlessness. Nonetheless, the very existence of this film testifies that there is hope. Cazabon is now able to reflect, with courage and creativity, on a life she knew only too well.

No Quick Fix, while showing life on the street, focuses on the parents' distress. The filmmaker's own mother and father recall the different stages of their struggle to rescue their daughter in spite of herself, and to save their family. "I never would have thought that in a family like ours..."

Cazabon's father re-reads letters to his daughter that speak eloquently of his grief. This grief is shared by both Cathy and Laurent's parents, as they struggle to understand why young people succumb to drugs and the street, daily exposing themselves to terrible risks. How can parents deal with a system that views them with suspicion, often siding with the young addicts? How can parents avoid being totally destroyed by despair? How can they manage to carry on their lives, in spite of everything?

The addicts' parents live in a permanent state of bewilderment, anxiety and guilt, preoccupied with the constant fear of losing their children. No Quick Fix does not hide brutal reality. The images are crude, the words hard-hitting. Laurent describes how he almost died. We see him at one point mumbling incoherently while smoking crack. Another day the camera hurries after Cathy who, in the throes of withdrawal, desperately tries to find her next fix. Not having heard from her in several months, Marjolaine scours the streets of Montreal, searching for her daughter. Meanwhile, Laurent's mother, Pierrette, is out Christmas shopping, oblivious of the unpleasant surprise he has in store for her.

My parents and I relived all that horror, says the filmmaker of her creative journey. No Quick Fix will help parents like Marjolaine, who learned a great deal about addiction during the making of this documentary. Her advice to all parents of drug-addicted children: reach out to others, seek information, and never give up.

2000, 51 min 56 s

Enfer et contre tous!

Denise Lefebvre Award - Category: Promotion, Education and Health
International Festival of Multimedia and Video in Healthcare
June 8 to 9 2000, Montréal - Canada