Finding Normal

Director: Brian Lindstrom 
Run time: 57 min. 
Call number: HV 5831 .O7 F56


"The film follows two men and one woman leaving Portlands's Hooper Memorial Detox, and entering the Recovery Mentor program , which provides clean and sober housing, drug treatment, and--perhaps most importantly--a mentor who knows first-hand what it takes to stay clean, stay out of prison, and build a 'normal' life."  
—Distributor's description

Cartel Land (2016)

Director: Matthew Heineman
Run Time: 80 min.
Call Number: HV5840.M4 C37 2016

"In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as 'El Doctor,' leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley – a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley – Tim 'Nailer' Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to stop Mexico’s drug wars from seeping across our border. Heineman embeds himself in the heart of darkness as Nailer, El Doctor, and the cartel each vie to bring their own brand of justice to a society where institutions have failed. The film is a chilling, visceral meditation on the breakdown of order and the blurry line between good and evil." 

—Distributor's description

Evergreen: The Road to Legalization in Washington (2014)

Director: Riley Morton
Run Time: 86 min.
Call Number: KF3891.M2 E94 2014

"A taut, thorough chronicle of the 2012 campaign to pass Initiative 502 — which proposed legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use — 'Evergreen' is an energetic study of a hard-fought battle. . . . Morton is fair to all parties, and the first thing that strikes a viewer is the array of local leaders and influential voices who participated in the fight. Among the proponents of I-502 were Alison Holcomb, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer and I-502’s director, and beloved travel guru Rick Steves, a longtime critic of failed war-on-drugs policies. . . . The brusque opposition is largely represented by medical-marijuana provider Steve Sarich and defense lawyer Douglas Hiatt."

—Tom Keogh, Seattle Times

The House I Live In (2013)

Director: Eugene Jarecki
Run Time: 108 min.
Call Number: HV825 .H68 2013


"Instead of peppering the audience with dull facts and figures, Jarecki uses people to illustrate his main thesis, which is that the American legal system has resorted to punishing drug offenders — even casual users — and permanently ruining their lives instead of trying to rehabilitate them. The war on drugs has become too lucrative an industry to rethink or reconsider. Entire towns depend on prisons for employment; the lack of opportunity for young people growing up in projects or slums practically ensures they will eventually resort to drug dealing, feeding the machine; ridiculously excessive sentences ensure there will always be a need for more jails (one man in the film is condemned to life without parole for carrying three grams of meth)."
—Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald