Oxyana
Oxyana
NR | 16 July 2013 (USA)
Oxyana Trailers

Oceana, West Virginia—known as “Oxyana” after its residents’ epidemic abuse of OxyContin—is a tragically real example of the insidious spread of drug dependency throughout the country. Set against an abandoned coal mining landscape to the melodies of Deer Tick’s haunting score, this unflinchingly intimate documentary probes the lives of Oceana’s afflicted and exposes the day-to-day experience of a town living in the harsh grip of addiction.

Reviews
mhendroff

This documentary seems terribly unfinished. Nothing about how the drugs flow in, why the law enforcement cannot stem the tide, why the residents of this small community seems especially prone to addiction (i am sorry - but just "there is nothing to do here" is a major cop out!).It appears the documentary makers latched on to a good topic - drug addiction in rural town USA - along with its related social ills - but then just had no direction of where to take it, apart from having a series of interviews. Unfinished - which is a shame, because so much more could have been done.

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Henrik Larsson

I'm from Sweden to start with, so seeing these images about an out of control drug situation is very unfamiliar experience. It shows the basic human individual level experiencing the drugs effects, from current users to moms and from lawyers to friends. And it's a very sad picture that's being painted. Many fighting for their lives or rather the meaning of it, and they can't seem to get a grasp on what to do. But there it stops. And it keeps on pounding us with interviews, as a previous commenter noticed, and it doesn't lead anywhere. Ecxept maybe shining some light on this "local" problem. And sure, with that being the producers intention , then they did a good job.For me, it fails to dive into the bigger picture. Every individual is responsible for their own actions in the end. And trough awareness and love most problems can be fixed by that individual. But we have another big problem here, an elephant in the room. And that's the pharma-industry that's lurking behind this, making BILLIONS on making people addicts every year. Never mind these "drugs" are being sold on the streets "illegaly" and turning peoples lives into a living horror. They're sold LEGALLY to people who know nothing better about true natural health, also making them addicts in the process. And the documentary misses to point out that entirely. It's a societal problem, not just local... even if it's a hard pill to swallow for some.And let me just say to people living there and maybe reading this. Such a wonderful place you have! What nature and surroundings! That alone should be sufficient for the youths to find activities in! And there's a lot of room for business(hiking canoing etc) and local farming also i would assume. Use the nature but don't exploit it. Become active and start groups who focuses on making your town as self-sufficient as possible, and keeping the people involved so they may find a way out of the bad spiral. If you think the government will save you think again. If you take a look at the rest of America then you'd understand. Like the mother said to her son in the movie: "i can't do it for you, only you can." Sums this up well.With love and friendship.

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tedpk1985

This is a highly visceral topic that I was genuinely very excited about and it had a lot of potential but it seems to never really gotten off the ground.The movie is interview after interview of how bad it is there and that is just beating the viewer over the head. The film doesn't really go into why the drug problem started, the actual effect the drug has on people or any other background information, it just jumps right into interviews splashed with some scenery shots of the West Virginia region.The film just really lost my interest after about 15-20min and I was saying to myself "I hope this whole film isn't just interviews" and sure enough it was. The way I would describe the way the film moves is that it goes up introduces the topic to you and just flat lines for about the next 70 min.Again, I really wanted to like this film as the topic is very important and it really felt like the film was shot over a couple weekends and to shoot a documentary of this breadth can't really be done over the course of a few weeks in the summer of 2012 (which the director stated it was). The film felt far from a finished product.

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tonywohlfarth

Oceana, West Virginia is the setting for Sean Dunne's startling portrait of a town beset with prescription drug abuse. Oxyana is the nickname given to the once proud Appalachian coal mining community of 1,400, and the name of this startling documentary which received its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19. Dunne & his crew spent 21 days of filming in the summer of 2012 in Oceana. Oxycana presents the people through a series of incredibly candid interviews. The director conducted open-ended interviews and is able to gain their trust by asking non-judgemental questions. Addiction to pain-killers like OxyContin & Percoset is the reality facing two generations of residents, and the film depicts pregnant mothers expressing fears about what lies ahead for their children. We see addicts shooting up so "the pain goes away" and youth mourning the loss of their friends and family, taken away by overdosing. This is Dunne's first documentary feature, and demonstrates a remarkable skill in allowing them to tell their stories. Oxyana could be set anywhere in North America, and the brutal reality it depicts is not easy to watch and reveals a tremendous talent in documentary film making.

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