Local Filmmaker will show 5 Short Films

On Addiction at County Library Branch

“Most people assume drug addiction is the result of a bad childhood or sustained exposure to drug use by others. Sometimes it’s the consequence of prescription drug use that spirals out of control. ” says southern Illinois filmmaker, Elle Mercurio-Cherrier,  (in photo) who is living in North County .

She plans on showing five short films and a short talk about the importance of opiate awarenesss here by hosting a short film festival shown in the 80-seated meeting room at a Saint Louis County Library – Florissant Valley Branch in Mid August. There is no admission fee .

Entitled Horror over Heroin the film aim is to end the horror that heroin has left “our communities crippled with crime and hopelessness.” I Mercurio aims to raise the awareness through anti-drug education for both parents and children all while standing up against the stigma that heroin addiction, so that more will seek help.

Since May of 2020, the opiate epidemic has rose 42 percent nationally since the begining of covid.(NBCnews)   Mercurio, the   director of the film Claimed, says she aims to make movies that make an impact on addiction. Currently, her movies are more show than tell she says, “ eschewing a didactic approach for something more expressionistic and emotional “ to help the audience to connect to the epidemic and understand it fully.

With Covid back on the rise the independent filmmaker has taken he film to a new platform like V imeo and others like it in order to show her movies. She’s using the resources in which she has at her disposal .

Although the film industry has been hit hard due to Covid 19, Mercurio-Cherrier presses on with four more new upcoming film releases that will be available both on her companies website as well as under the staff picks on Vimeo for free for that particular release date . Inspired

by the 1997 Public Service Announcement ” This is your brain on drugs” starring Rachel Leigh Cook . Cherrier’s anti-drug PSA short film reminds us of the youngest victims that drug addiction often leaves behind.

She stated: “Cranked focuses on a widower as he begins to witness the grips of crack-cocaine begin to take over his community. He finds himself quickly wrestling with his own faith in God when addiction threatens to take his only daughter the summer after her graduation as her lie spirals out of control,”

A project she worked on with fellow filmmaker Amanda Young “Love, Gwen” will have you speechless. This short film is about a sister’s love who is willing to go to any length to save her sister from addiction.

The short documentary to the Cranked film project is ” Systemic Inc. ” It is an honest discussion on systemic racism in Saint Louis and the immediate midwest,” she contends. The final one is titled “In this gray place ” though released on Vimeo currently. Simply described as a robbery gone wrong. Aaron – barricaded in a rest stop bathroom – faces down the police, hallucinations and a grim secret.

PREVIEW FILMS: Feel free to come by and check out a few short films and participate in a short discussion about the horror of addiction.

The public   can join in a discussion regarding this subject Saturday, July 30 at the Florissant Valley Branch Library on Saturday, July 30 with candidate Don Houston, who is running for Missouri 68th state rep. district at the library. He is running in the August 2 Primary election as a Democrat

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