Film shot in Ohio sheds light on addiction recovery

The new independent film Union County tells the story of two brothers in a court-mandated drug rehabilitation program in rural Ohio, with a supporting cast of mostly non-professional actors who share their own experiences, pain, and hope as they go through the program themselves. You're tuned to Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. I'm Lucy May. Joining me in this recorded interview to discuss the story Union County tells and how he chose to tell it is filmmaker Adam Meeks. Welcome to the program, Adam. Thanks so much. Pleasure to be here. So why Union County, Ohio? Do you have a personal connection? Yeah, a lot of my extended family has kind of landed in that area. I spent the first six years of my life in Columbus, and both my parents are from Columbus. I kind of go back multigenerationally on both sides in central Ohio. And so around 2017, 2018, I started spending time back in the area, mostly because my grandmother was getting older and it was sort of time to spend with her towards the end of her life. And while I was there, you know, the first thing that was sort of we were all kind of immediately aware of and contending with was the kind of, you know, the effects of. of the opioid epidemic and addiction that was kind of surrounding all of us and affecting, you know, nearly everybody who is sort of in that area and around the country. But what was really kind of inspiring to me as I started to kind of poke around a little bit deeper was seeing these these stories of recovery and hope and people also getting back on their feet. And, you know, at the time, especially, there were so many. We were very aware of the tragedies, and I think, and that was very real. I also think we were... less aware of these kind of communities of recovery and these incredible efforts for folks to get back on their feet. And as I met the drug court judge at the time and folks who run the program, I just felt really inspired to see if I could kind of make a film that shines a little bit of a light on the work that they're doing and the kind of day-to-day work that goes into recovery and see if that could be a... a meaningful kind of addition to the cultural conversation. Well, back up just a second. How did you meet the drug court judge? I was introduced to, it was the previous judge at the time, was the first judge I was introduced to. And he and my uncle were friends. And so I had been spending time with my uncle and telling him about what I was interested in.

He said, hey, my friend is a judge, and he presides over an adult recovery court. You should talk to him. And so I got connected with the judge, and he invited me to sit in on a meeting. And, you know, that first meeting kind of changed everything. That courtroom becomes a really important emotional center for your film. Was that by design? Yeah, absolutely. That was kind of the first thought. while i was in the room that first day and then when i after i left and started thinking about the story was kind of like the first priority was to see if i could kind of share the feeling in that room and then You know, as I thought more about the narrative, it became about how to kind of tell this character-driven story that could kind of weave us through this real community with the kind of core room at the center of it. You said you wanted to share that feeling. What was that feeling that you were getting it when you were there? I think it was a space that was just so charged with, like, hope and compassion. And... empathy and community. And I think that, I think that, you know, in retrospect, I myself was at a moment where, you know, I was searching for a community of my own in some ways. And so the feeling of connection in that space really resonated with me. And I think it's a, that community feeling is something that I hoped would resonate with anybody. You know, it's a very kind of human need for connection and support. And I felt all of that in that space. And also a lot of joy, which is so contradictory to what we think about when we think about stories of addiction and recovery. But there was just all this multi-dimensional humanity that went immediately so far beyond whatever kind of like superficial label of, you know, of addict or substance use disorder we, you know, we think we know or we think should define somebody. I'm talking in this recorded interview with Adam Meeks about his new film, Union County. So, Adam, your movie is a work of fiction, but a lot of the court interactions include real people, real employees of the court and people who are themselves in recovery. How did all that come about? It really kind of emerged out of a relationship that I formed with Annette Dio, who is the program director of this particular adult recovery court. And she is kind of, you know, the heart and soul of the program and the community. And she's been doing it there for two or three decades. And she and I formed a relationship and a friendship. that started with the short film that we made before the feature, also called Union County. And she and I worked together on that.

I cast her to play a very small role in a couple of scenes in that. And afterwards, I remember telling her, like, Annette, I knew you'd be good. I did not know you would be this good, you know, of an actor. And she very casually said, oh, I didn't tell you. I studied acting for several years before I started running. You know, I immediately was just like, okay, well, we've got. we've got some unfinished business here then and so we i wrote a much larger role for her and that kind of became you know that relationship and collaborative partnership really became the core of it. She's able to be, you know, entirely herself in a kind of documentary capacity in the film. And she, and that comes with introducing me to so many folks and kind of helping convey what we were up to and helping build trust within the community. And then she's also able to, you know, step into a fully scripted fictional scene opposite Will Poulter and fully hold her own. And so that kind of became the crux of it. I think the all the stuff that comes out of the from the real community and more of a documentary capacity starts with her with Annette and with her belief in what we were doing and and kind of everybody around her. Everyone's kind of trust in her and then us kind of by extension. And also just this is a project that was many years in the making. And so relationships are built over time, over years. And so by the time we were. We were there, you know, with our actors and a crew and up and running. I think everybody felt like they knew what we were up to and believed in what we were doing. And it was always a celebration of recovery and of the way folks were getting back on their feet. So I think there was, once there was a kind of an understanding and interest of what we were doing, we were really given so much, you know, generosity. Well, the people who are part of the recovery community who are talking in this courtroom, I mean, some of them are talking about spending time with family or getting to see their kids or being able to drive again. These are their real experiences? Are they talking about what they've really been going through? Yeah, none of that's scripted. That's all, you know, the kind of structure of the program is that Monday afternoons, the participants meet in the courtroom and check in with the judge and the team and sort of give updates on what they're up to. And the judge and his team sort of checks in about how they can help. And we built the kind of structure of the production around being in the room every Monday afternoon with a couple of cameras and also with a couple of our lead actors who would kind of settle into their characters in real time in the room. And we basically asked everybody at the beginning of each meeting, you know, raise your hand if you don't want to be filmed today. It was always voluntary every Monday. And if they didn't want to be filmed, you know, we would turn the camera away during their interaction and turn it off.

always, you know, entirely respect that. So then, you know, it became kind of like on our, you know, our professional actors, Will Polter and Nois and Duneo to sort of embody their characters. to the extent that they were then able to also, you know, not know when they were going to be called it by the judge and sort of step up to the podium and respond to the judge in exactly the same way. So it was all built around really observing, you know, these interactions on a, on a, you know, week to week basis without, without any script for the participants in the program. That authenticity is so important to your film. Did you ever worry about how to convey the stories that these people were sharing without exploiting the difficult things that they've gone through and that they're talking about and living with? I mean, how did you walk that line? I think it was just always being aware of what the exploitative version of it would look like and knowing that the best version of this. film comes out of a true collaboration. And, you know, we did so much kind of foundational work in the lead-up. And this was, this extends to everybody on the on the casting crew, really, to be there. many times in advance forming real relationships and letting this be, you know, a film made with a community and not not about a community or imposed on a community. It really was important that it sort of started inside that courtroom from... being told by the voices who are living it and then it kind of expands outward from there. So it was always a consideration and we were always very aware of what, you know, what some of those pitfalls would be. And I think it was just really about kind of empowering the participants to, you know, sort of share their truths in a way that felt honest and human and inspiring. And then... you know, make sure that also kind of the way that we were seeing it and lensing it and telling the story was also one with was also kind of like with dignity and compassion in mind. And there are all sorts of kind of micro decisions that come along with that. But we kind of had our... had our kind of principles and values in mind and tried to make every decision from there. Yeah. Those micro decisions, I mean, did you ever capture someone on film who said, I'm willing to be, you know, I'm willing to be part of this for my Monday check-in, but afterwards you thought, oh, that's just, that's too much. They might regret that later. I mean, did you have to make decisions about that? Totally. There were plenty of decisions in the edit because we filmed, you know, seven Mondays.

consecutively and that's you know probably about 10 hours of footage of folks sharing in the room and then it becomes you know when you're editing the film about what feels like the right kind of balance of stories and and characters and the most kind of dynamic and comprehensive sort of collective portrait of this place and yeah there were plenty of decisions around around what feels additive and what doesn't. And we never had anybody who, you know, expressed any kind of concern with, you know, their own interaction or what, what, you know, what we were filming. And there were, to be honest, I can't recall too many conversations of concern around like, oh, this is something that, you know, we shouldn't share. It's really just about, you know, what feels most effective and impactful. you know, over the course of 90 minutes. I have to say the professional actors you have in this film, I mean, it can be difficult to tell them apart from the people who are part of the real recovery community. They're just so immersed in their roles. Yeah, they are incredible. It was of kind of utmost importance to make sure we got, you know, every role right from a casting perspective, knowing that if it didn't, feel like fully incorporated into the fold, that, you know, folks would kind of stick out as performers amongst non-performers. But yeah, I'm just so proud of the kind of ensemble that we were able to bring into the film. And that starts with, you know, Will Poulter and Noah Centenio and also then kind of extends to Elise Kibler and Emily Mead and Daniel Woolahan. And I think, you know, a big part of that too was that everybody wanted to make. the same kind of film and they all were excited and bought into the process. And that meant that, you know, everybody came out in advance and built real relationships in the community and really kind of didn't sort of shortcut the process. And, you know, it was a, everybody was sort of on the kind of professional actor. So I was just so. so talented at being able to kind of step into these real spaces and fully disappear into their characters. And I always knew the film wouldn't work the same way without it. So I'm just so kind of proud of and inspired by the work that they did. I spotted one woman in the film wearing a sober is sexy t-shirt. I mean, did that? Was that just what she happened to wear? It was a terrific detail. She just wore it that day. She just wore it that day. And yeah, we didn't ever, we didn't put anybody in any in any wardrobe who wasn't, you know, our professional actors. So that's the kind of stuff that just emerges out of kind of documentary observation. Yeah. You mentioned having family in Union County and spending a lot of time there over various years, you know, your observations of the people there and what they were going through. Can you share any anecdotal stories, what you saw there, the people you met, the experiences, just about the real life you observed there? One story that comes to mind is a friend of mine who I got to know who's a graduate of the program.

He told me one day that the closest he ever got to relapsing while he was in the program was when his younger foster brother passed away. And they had had a history of kind of using together. And he didn't know how to deal with that kind of grief, you know, without thinking about using again. And he started to kind of go down that path. And then... But before he did, he called Annette and he called Annette in the middle of the night and she answered the phone and she stayed up with him. And he said, you know, he told her, I don't want you to tell me not to do this. I just, I just, you know, want to talk to you. And she, you know, she stayed up with him and said, I'm here. And he told me that when he got off the phone with her, he couldn't, he didn't feel like he could go through with it because he now had, you know, a person and by extension, a community of people who were who were there for him and who he also felt like he would be letting down. And. I was so moved by that story just as an anecdote from one young man's experience that it really, and it really kind of encapsulated so much of what I hoped that the film could convey. So I built a lot of the kind of structure of the film around that anecdote and then kind of expanded the relationships from there. But obviously that's a profound one in many levels and became kind of an anchor for the film we were making. Yeah. The opioid crisis has been, you know, such a problem in the United States for decades now. How big a problem is it and has it been in Union County? It's gotten much better. It was a big problem for a long time. You know, I don't want to say that it was, you know, the worst place in the country or place in the state. It's, you know, kind of quantifying that stuff is different by different measurements. And certainly some places, you know, were also hit extremely hard and by some measurements harder. It's gotten a lot better in the Union County area. And that I think is... due to a multitude of complex factors. I was just speaking with the judge two nights ago who was sharing just how much improvement there's been over the last five or so years, especially just kind of like overdose numbers have gone way down and recovery numbers and success rates in terms of these programs have gone way up. So we're moving in the right direction. There's a lot more work to do. I hope that we can kind of continue to recognize and acknowledge the positive progress because that's such an important thing to look at and to kind of build from. You've spent so much time in Union County. Can you give us a sense for what it's like there? Just give us a sense of place for anybody who hasn't been there or even to another part of rural Ohio.

Yeah, so the film is shot across Union County and Logan County, which is the neighboring county. And to me, it's such a beautiful pastoral landscape and filled with some of the kindest, most grounded, you know, salt to the earth folks that I've ever met. And it's rich in community. It's rich in kind of like a sense of... kind of like aligned values. And it's a place that, you know, at one time may have been identified by its kind of like, you know, post-industrial context. But there's been so much kind of like community effort and resources put into maintaining a sense of like. civic identity and civic pride. And it's now kind of like the cities around the area have these kind of thriving downtowns and community spaces. So it's a beautiful place. I really wanted the film to also kind of highlight that. And we're so used to sort of seeing, especially in stories like this, we're so used to seeing the Midwest depicted. with a certain kind of like bleakness or like barren post-industrial kind of landscape. But that's not just, that's just not true to the way that I see it and know it to be. So I really wanted the film to also kind of like subvert that narrative and show folks how beautiful this landscape is. Your film really focuses on recovery. Anybody who suffers from addiction or has a loved one who suffers from addiction knows how challenging recovery can be. And your movie doesn't shy away from those challenges. No, it's an important part. It's an important aspect to not look away from. It's also the thing that, you know, this film, it was so important that we looked at the kind of, this sort of shared. humanity across this subject matter and and a big part of that from my perspective was to look at, you know, the family members and the friends and the impact and the things that those folks are contending with that surround, you know, somebody going through addiction and recovery. So I think that I wanted to, it was important to look at this in as direct and kind of unflinching light as possible while we were also. you know, prioritizing a story of hope. And, you know, for every person who's, you know, struggled with substance use disorder, there's there's typically a family that surrounds that person and that has their own complicated relationship to it and their own set of struggles and challenges. And we wanted to kind of acknowledge that aspect as well. You mentioned hope and the film is also very hopeful. Is that what you want to leave audiences with, just that sense of hope? Absolutely, yeah. From the very first day I sat in on that room, I thought, you know, if this film could demonstrate a path forward for folks who need to see it and see that that kind of getting back on your feet is possible and is happening on a daily basis, then that's a worthwhile story to tell.

So it all started from there and I do hope that that's something that folks can take away from it. Well, I've been talking with filmmaker Adam Meeks about his new film, Union County. It opens in Cincinnati and other cities, August 14th. Thanks so much for your time today, Adam. Thank you so much. You've been listening to Cincinnati Edition on WVXU. Our producer is Selena Reeder. Associate producer is Harper Carlton. Technical director is Stephen Baum. I'm Lucy May. Thanks for listening.