A couple of years ago, Sam Tarplin was deep in the throes of heroin addiction. To feed his habit, he stole from family and friends. He lived a life of near-total isolation, sometimes in Boston, and sometimes here on the Cape. After a series of overdoses, Sam finally sought help. With the help of a recovery program, he was able to clean up his act by autumn of 2013. But living on the Cape is complicated for a recovering addict. Most of the jobs dry up in the wintertime, and by last winter Sam was worried about the long stretches of time he would have on his hands with nothing to do.
To give himself purpose, he and his friend Nate Robertson — also a recovering addict — hatched a plan: they would make a documentary film about the addiction problem they knew from the inside. Over the course of several months, they made the project come to life. They raised money through old-fashioned networking. They found subjects among their friends in recovery. They interviewed local cops, politicians, healthcare workers, and others who knew about the problem from an institutional perspective.
Back in September, they premiered their film, What Happened Here: The Untold Story of Addiction on Cape Cod, in Falmouth. This week it was shown at 3065 Live in Wareham. They are now working with the Barnstable County Regional Substance Abuse Council to organize further showings on the Cape. Follow their progress at their Facebook page.
This piece came to us from our production partners at Atlantic Public Media through their media training program, The Transom Story Workshop in Woods Hole. You can find out more about that program at Transom.org
Our series is edited by Jay Allison. Creative Life is made possible by The Circle of Ten, ten local businesses and organizations committed to local programming on WCAI
