NORTH Ayrshire film-makers recovering from addiction are set to screen a harrowing video charting their individual journeys to recovery.

Funky Films, a collaboration between the Alcohol and Drug Partnership and Recovery at Work (RaW), have been working hard over the last eight weeks to create their first ever production. The film is due to be screened at an event in the Harbour Arts Centre from 9.30am on Thursday, September 15.

Mark Gallagher, Lead Officer at North Ayrshire Alcohol and Drug Partnership, told the Herald: “This has been an eight week project and we’ve had about 12-15 people in recovery engaged in it. They wanted to do a video about their own recovery journey. I’ve not seen it yet but I’ve heard that their stories are extremely powerful and very hard-hitting and that people are being very open about their background. It will be a real eye-opener. 

“We’re hoping this breaks the stigma that goes along with people in recovery. But importantly, they are not just ‘people in recovery’, they are a film group that want to bring something back to the community.”

Funky Films is one of the many projects of RaW, the community group who run the weekly recovery initiative, Cafe Solace at Ardrossan’s Church of the Nazarene. As the Herald reported recently, Cafe Solace has been a huge success, attracting thousands of customers since its launch last year. The cafe has now opened another branch in Irvine and has plans for further expansion throughout the locality. 

Mark said: “Obviously the staff help, but it’s the volunteers who really deliver the cafe. The cafe has been such an opportunity for people. We’ve seen the cafe model to be such a success that we’re looking to expand it into the six localities of North Ayrshire. 

“We want to reach the wider communities, not just people in recovery. There are families and communities affected by addiction. The families can become very much forgotten and yet a family can make or break someone. I think that’s what’s been good about the cafes – they’re not just involving people in recovery, they involve members of the community.”

Funky Films’ premier of their first production is at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine on Thursday, September 15 from 9.30-11.30am. There will be refreshments from 9.30am until10am and the film showing will start at 10am.