EVERY DOLLAR RAISED WILL HELP THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE REACH THE WIDEST AUDIENCE POSSIBLE! 

The Anonymous People is an independent film about the emerging Addiction Recovery Advocacy Movement set to be released in 2013.  We’ve already invested $100,000 into the project, have captured over 75 hours of incredible footage like you just saw, and raised over $45,000 on KickStarter to finish the production phase!  BUT… we STILL need your help to finish the post-production phase of the feature length film.  For details on what the additional funds raised past our initial goal will be used for please see this link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/342545630/the-anonymous-people/posts/293196

Let's finish this movie together!  Let’s do it ourselves, without the influence of the large, exploitive corporate media.  And, for the first time, we can sensationalize RECOVERY...not addiction!  Because as our friend John Shinholser says in the film "RECOVERY IS SENSATIONAL!"

FILM SYNOPSIS: 

THE ANONYMOUS PEOPLE is a feature documentary film about the 23.5 million Americans living in long-term recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction.  Deeply entrenched social stigma and mass participation in widely successful anonymous 12-step groups have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades.  The vacuum created by this silence has been filled by sensational mass media depictions of addiction that continue to perpetuate a lurid public fascination with the dysfunctional side of what is a preventable and treatable health condition.  Just like women with breast cancer, or people with HIV/AIDS, courageous addiction recovery advocates are starting to come out of the shadows to tell their true stories.  The moving story of The Anonymous People will be told through the faces and voices
 of the leaders, volunteers, corporate executives, and celebrities who are laying it all on the line 
to save the lives of others just like them.  This passionate new public recovery movement is fueling a changing conversation that aims to transform public opinion, and finally shift problematic policy toward lasting recovery solutions.

NEW T-SHIRT DESIGN JUST RELEASED - EXCLUSIVE FOR BACKERS & COMING TO A RECOVERY EVENT NEAR YOU:

FILM STATUS:

• Never Before Seen Access To Recovery Communities 
• High Profile People In Recovery Featured (See Screen Shots of “Cast” Below)
• Over 75 Hours of Incredible Footage Captured
• Features People and Organizations in 17 Different States & Counting
• Production Planned for National Events Unfolding in September of 2012
• Post-Production Scheduled To Be Complete by Early 2013
• Initial KickStarter funding goal of $45,000 met!

• 16-Minute Promotional Cut Now Complete (Check Out The $100 Pledge Reward)

FOLLOW THE PROJECT ON THE OFFICIAL MOVIE TWITTER ACCOUNT: Follow @TheAnonymousPpl

FOLLOW THE PROJECT ON THE OFFICIAL MOVIE FACEBOOK ACCOUNT: http://www.facebook.com/TheAnonymousPeopleMovie

*Disclaimer - No footage has been or will be taken inside meetings held by  12-step fellowships.  The project team has deep respect and admiration for the long-standing, beautiful tradition of anonymity at the level of film.  The project intends to use the lessons learned from The New Recovery Advocacy Movement to uphold this sacred trust, while presenting different perspectives of what this tradition means for people in recovery.  It is an undeniable fact that recovery is bigger than any one particular pathway, and the issues we must overcome together are bigger than any single component of recovery.  

APPROACH TO THE FILM:

The current trend in mainstream reality television shows such as, Intervention and Celebrity Rehab, as well as in mass media news coverage of celebrity scandals, is to persistently document the drama of addiction in ways that marginalize people suffering from an illness.  Sensationalistic depictions of drug and alcohol problems are sold by the media business to garner ratings, and, unfortunately, this business interest has severely impacted public opinion and policy.  The unrelenting media fascination with the problem side of addiction ignores the other side of the issue: known solutions.  This pervasive and unbalanced perspective causes the addiction epidemic in America to appear hopeless. 

But there is hope!

The good news for the 20-25 million Americans currently suffering from substance use disorders is that there is a grassroots recovery advocacy and support movement emerging nationally.  Courageous people in long-term recovery are uniting for the first time in decades to bring change to America’s most enduring problem.  However, this public movement is still in its infancy stage of growth; the general public – and even millions in recovery – are largely unaware of the existence of this new, productive way of thinking, living, and serving.  Recovery, like addiction, has existed too long in the shadows.

The Anonymous People shines a light on the personal and societal value of recovery through the moving stories of people who have gone public with their recovery.  

Understandably, some people in recovery are reluctant to go public.  But when someone does put a face and a voice on recovery with his or her personal story, the general public can finally access the powerful message of hope that has resonated for years in underground recovery communities. 

While much has been written, researched, and developed about this new recovery movement, to date nothing has broken through into mass media markets to make a wider audience aware of the movement’s importance.  There is a great need to educate, motivate, and engage those in and out of recovery about public advocacy and peer-based recovery support.  Broader knowledge and understanding of these issues have the potential to change the way drug and alcohol problems are solved in our communities.

Check out our “cast” of GAMECHANGERS!  The Kickstarter Clip is just a glimpse at some of the amazing people featured in The Anonymous People.  Below are frames from the full movie showing the faces of our friends who have already lent their voices to this project.  Some you will know; others will surprise you:

“Many of us have carried a message of hope on a one-to-one basis; this new recovery movement calls upon us to carry that message of hope to whole communities and the whole culture. We will shape the future of recovery with a detached silence or with a passionate voice. It is time we stepped forward to shape this history with our stories, our time and our talents.” - William White

ABOUT KICKSTARTER

Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world.  Every month tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, art, film, technology, design, food, and other creative fields.  Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires.

WATCH GREG'S 2010 SILVER TELLY AWARD WINNING SHORT FILM: Central Pride