This week’s film festival, curated by Lisl Ponger, walks the line between the healing capabilities of drugs and the dangers. Drugs have the ability to turn the tide on pandemics and save lives, on the other side they can also cast an addictive shroud.
Often it is the lack of availability to drugs which can save preventable deaths in many countries, Nan Goldin also explores the over-availability of pharmaceuticals in the US in her protest against OxyContin and the Sackler family.
Today’s trailer visits Jazz legend Wynton Marsalis discussing the quality of voice from the late, great Billie Holiday.
“Sophisticated in her understanding of harmony and in her understanding of melody”.
In the clip 100 days of Lady Day, Wynton celebrates Billie’s natural ability to sing with precision and delicacy. A quality that he explains cannot be taught or learnt, that one is only born with.
Billie Holiday, or Lady Day as nicknamed by saxophonist Lester Young, had a voice so unique that she could convey a range of emotions within one line of singing. A quality that is arguably held by the two other vocalists shown in this week’s film festival, Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin. All three had battled with drink and drugs, and all sadly passed before their time.
This November, Oregon became the first US state to legally decriminalised hard drug use in understanding that addiction is a “health issue”. Can the degradation of stigma around drug-use lead to more people seeking assistance?
Tune in the full Film Festival tonight at 6pm GMT.
