Four people share their experience of alcohol and substance addiction ahead of the Portsmouth Recovery Festival

Portsmouth Film Society’s fifth annual Recovery Festival takes place from November 9 to 12 at Southsea Cinema & Arts Centre and Portsmouth Central Library and features films made by people tackling their additions, raising awareness and celebrating people’s ability to recognise their problems.

The highlights of the weekend are recovery films: The vision for the festival is to share a celebration of those who have found recovery and the organisations who have helped them.

A special video created by Shots!TV shares the stories of four people taking part and will air on Freeview Channel 276 on Thursday, November 9 at 2.20pm and Saturday, November 11 at 11.10am. For more detail see the video embedded in this story.

Cllr Matthew Winnington, Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing, Health & Care at Portsmouth City Council, said: “We are really pleased to see people in recovery from addiction participating on this course. Activities such as this provide people with a sense of purpose and hope for the future, it also provides an opportunity for them to tell their stories on film. We look forward to seeing the films they produce at the Recovery Film festival in November. We are grateful to Southern Co-op for funding this course.”

Director of Portsmouth Film Society Aysegul Epengin: “The objective for our festival is we hope to celebrate the impact that recovery services have had across communities around the globe and within local areas, bringing awareness of causes that help to understand the needs of those in recovery as well as the services they provide to help progress and sustain their communities in the recovery process. It will also the explore the positive impacts that recovery has on individuals and people around them, presenting stories of recovery through their own personal lenses and how they improve and enrich their communities. Thank you so much all our supporters, including Southern Co—op for their support to our filmmaking course: I Am Only Human 3’.”

The festival has been supported by Southern Co-op which has said it hopes the event will bring about a better understanding of addition.

Southern Co-op’s Loss Prevention and Security Manager, Gareth Lewis, said: “We firmly believe in the power of community-driven initiatives to bring about positive change so Southern Co-op is delighted to be able to support this year’s Recovery Film Festival. With the films being centred around the theme of addiction and recovery, this resonates deeply with our mission and we hope it will bring together a better understanding of how we can all help each other breaking down stigmas and promoting a supportive environment for those affected by addiction.”

Tickets cost £6/£7. For more information and ticket purchases visit southseacinema.co.uk or www.portsmouthfilmsociety.org.uk/recoveryfestival/