Super 8 Documentary on Drug Addiction

[Tiago Almança]

Hey everyone! I’m excited to share with you a short documentary I filmed on drug addiction, shot in the neighborhood of La Mina, Barcelona (Spain).

The documentary captures a series of brief encounters with individuals addicted to heroin or cocaine. In these fleeting conversations, they share their experiences with drugs: how they first encountered them, the toll addiction has taken on their lives, the past they left behind, or the future they dream of if they ever manage to break free. This is by no means a comprehensive portrait of each person but rather a raw and intimate glimpse into their reality—a simple conversation meant to bring visibility to their lives.

I filmed everything using a Super 8 Canon 514XL with Kodak Tri-X to create a visual style that reflects the rawness of their stories.

Hope you find it interesting!

 

[Tyler Purcell]

This is a lovely piece, I really enjoyed it. Absolutely spot on with your cinematography and post work. I love this type of documentary, it's really bite sized and you can get the point across without diving too much, which I think is more powerful. I hope you submit this to documentary film festivals. 

[Pilvari Pirtola]

Nice short documentary! Visual style definitely fits well the subject here. 


regarding the subject matter, there's couple of good documentaries my friend was working on, which I think are worth checking out if they show up somewhere:
Reindeer Spotting
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1584813/ 
Lost Boys
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12938038




 

[Jon O'Brien]

It's got visual power. It inspires me to shoot documentaries on film. Well done! I find that Super 8 and 16mm film are just so watchable. Doesn't matter if the sound isn't sync. Couldn't care really most of the time. I personally find a lot of video kind of heartless and soulless. Too clinical, too electronic, too far removed from the gritty reality of this world. I liked the ending too.

Edited February 9 by Jon O'Brien

[Chris Burke]

Beautiful! Bravo!

 

How did you record sync audio?

[Tiago Almança]

Thank you all so much for your kind words! I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the film and share your thoughts.

@Tyler Purcell I’m glad you enjoyed it! I definitely agree that keeping it concise can sometimes make a stronger impact. I already submitted it to some documentary festivals, and it was screened at a local one called Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival.

@Pilvari Pirtola Thanks for the recommendations! I’ll definitely check them out.

@Jon O'Brien  I totally agree. There’s something about its imperfections that make it feel more raw and real.

@Chris Burke Thank you! I actually didn’t record sync audio, we did the interviews just with a mic before filming them.