Film Screenings: ‘My Recoverist Family’ and ‘This is My Face: What lies inside a journey with HIV’

Join Islington Mill Art Academy for a free screening of two films, each one made by working collaboratively with people, each exploring journeys of recovery and sense-making.

The evening includes a ‘potluck dinner’ (please bring along some food to share if you are able) and conversation with the film directors Amanda Ravetz (My Recoverist Family) and Angelica Cabezas (This Is My Face) before and after the screenings.

This is My Face: What lies inside a journey with HIV
In Chile, people living with HIV fear stigma, and often conceal their condition and remain silent about what they are going through. This is My Face explores what happens when a range of men living with the virus open up about the illness that changed their life trajectories. It follows a creative process whereby they produce photographic portraits that represent their (often painful) memories and feelings, a process which helps them challenge years of silence, shame, and misrepresentation. A lesson in the power of collaborative storytelling. Directed by Angelica Cabezas.

My Recoverist Family 
An LGBT+ group from Greater Manchester are on a non-linear journey through recovery from substance use. Presided over by performance artist and high wire avant-gardist David Hoyle with supporting artist Jackie Haynes, their trips around the north west culminate in a once – and only once – live arts performance at Manchester’s international arts venue HOME. Cutting between final performance and nomadic workshops, the film bears witness to these recoverists’ unique perspectives on addiction, the vitalising power of art and friendship and on what it is that they – and we – need to recover from. Commissioned by Portraits of Recovery. Directed by Amanda Ravetz and Huw Wahl, featuring Justin Freeman, Greg Thorpe, Jackie Haynes, Mark Prest, David Hoyle and Adele Fowles.