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Camp Recovery, located in the coastal town of Santa Cruz, Cal., features a mix of new and long-term addicts, most of whom stay for 30 days (the maximum allowed by most insurance companies).
REHAB chronicles their experiences in the center and follows them out into the less-supervised, far more dangerous, "real" world, riding the emotional tidal waves that accompany incremental progress and devastating relapses. The film offers a rare insider's look at the ups and downs of each addict's journey to stay clean.
The stay at Camp Recovery begins with an eye-opening and prophetic welcoming speech from director Karla Leggett, a onetime addict who has been clean for ten years. "A year from now, two of you will be dead," she says. "Four of you will be clean. Eight of you will come back and forth a couple of times, maybe. Some of you will be homeless, some of you will be divorced, no jobs. For those people who made the choice to stay clean, your life one year from today will be magic."
REHAB's subjects include: Brannon, a 23-year-old heroin addict who has experimented with alcohol and drugs for more than a decade, whose alcoholic father died in the last year; Tiffani, a 21-year-old heroin addict who was once a Girl Scout; Anitra, a 20-year-old methamphetamine addict who says she was never able to meet her father's high expectations; Josh, a 20-year-old cocaine addict who has been warned that his next drug offense may land him in jail; and Ally, a 22-year-old who "met" heroin as an art student in San Francisco.
Though the habits of these addicts vary - from alcohol and cocaine to crystal meth and heroin - they share the difficult challenge of getting and staying clean at the rehab facility, despite a concerned and supportive staff that includes several former addicts. As Tiffani, who first tried heroin at 16, explains, "I'm afraid to be clean. I don't know how."
Captured in heartbreaking one-on-one and group sessions, all five try to beat the daunting odds cited by Leggett. The documentary follows the five on and off over the two years following their stints in rehab as they fight, and often lose, the battle for recovery. Though Leggett's gloomy forecast proves not far from the mark, at least one stays clean. Recovery will be a lifelong journey for all of them.
REHAB was produced and directed by Steven Okazaki; edited by Geof Bartz; associate producer/sound recordist, Marissa Aroy; original music by Simon Gentry. For HBO: senior producer, Lisa Heller; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.
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