On March 21 and 22, the Health Care Council of Chicago (HC3) hosted a premiere two-night screening of Tipping the Pain Scale, a new award-winning feature documentary film about six dynamic people in the addiction and recovery world who are making a difference.
The addiction crisis in America has reached a new boiling point, and courageous people – at all levels, from all walks of life – are rising to answer the call. Tipping the Pain Scale is a feature documentary film following individuals grappling with the current systemic failures of how we have dealt with addiction in communities and their journey to develop and employ new, innovative, and often controversial solutions to the problem. It is a quasi-anthology, weaving characters through their own stories as they connect to the issues plaguing all communities and the country in an urgent fight to save lives.
The first screen took place on North Side at the Music Box Theater (Lakeview) on March 21, with a welcome reception hosted by local behavioral health provider Rosecrance. The second screening was held on the South Side at the DuSable Museum of African American History (Hyde Park) on March 22, with a welcome reception hosted by Third Horizon Strategies.
Following each screening, HC3 hosted a community discussion with a panel of experts including spoken word artist Joseph Green and NFL Pro Bowler Darren Waller – both of whom participated in the film –and Greg Williams, one of the film’s producers. Two local leaders also participated in the discussion: Dora Dantzler Wright, founder and CEO of Chicago Recovering Communities Coalition and Sara Howe former CEO of the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health and current senior director at Third Horizon Strategies. The North Side discussion was led by Tom Farley, Jr., brother of the late comedian Chris Farley and Community Relations Coordinator at Rosecrance. David Smith, founder and CEO of Third Horizon Strategies and co-founder of HC3, moderated the South Side Discussion.
Each screening was free to attend with a suggested donation that benefitted the mvmnt, a new Chicago-based nonprofit empowering and uplifting underserved youth as a means to combat oppression, marginalization, and threats to their safety.
The South Side event discussion at the DuSable Museum on March 22 was filmed and is available to watch here.
Tipping the Pain Scale is expected to be available for wider distribution in the months ahead. In the meantime, you can learn more about upcoming community screenings or host your own: https://www.tippingthepainscale.com/
Photos from our events on March 21 and 22, 2022:
