LODESTAR
Synopsis
Rapidly approaching their respective bottoms, two addicts share a room for a night in a treatment center.
Credits
James McCaffrey – “John”
Lance Daniels – “Ryan”
Director Statement
3/7/15. At around 3 pm my roommate got out of bed to use the bathroom. He found me collapsed by the toilet. I wasn’t breathing. After some deliberation, my friends called 911. I was rushed to a nearby hospital, and, thanks to a shot of Narcan in the ambulance, I woke up. A lot of people didn’t. There were 52,404 opioid-related deaths that year.
So, I was alive, but for what? Doctors told me I’d almost died. My family was horrified. None of it mattered. All I could do was stick to the cycle that had worked for me for so long. Feel bad, use, feel good, feel bad. Within a couple of hours, I was asking my friends to sneak booze into my hospital room. Within two weeks, I was stealing opiates from my sick mother’s purse. Confused and ashamed, I had reached the bottom. It was there that I met John.
This film is for him.
Director Biography
Max Clark holds a Bachelor’s in Visual Arts from the University of Chicago and a Master’s in Directing from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He works on the creative team at Live Nation as an Art Director, focusing on video production and design. The screenplay for Lodestar, his first film, was recently selected as an award winner at the 2020 Big Apple Film Festival.
