J is for Junkie comes as a hard-hitting and beautifully shot documentary on crack and being homeless. Filmed in “The Living Room” in Atlanta, a small cove tucked in behind a Texaco gas station, the documentary captures African-American men and women opening up to Corey Davis, a young filmmaker with an artistic flare and an anthropologist’s care for documenting lived reality.
8.87
Rating: 8.87/10 based on 39 votes cast.
Advertisement
Join The Conversation
Where is the living room in east Atlanta? Texaco? What street?; Where they sit on the small wall?
P.S. If you’re bored, open this doc on YouTube and enable subtitles. Funny stuff.
Nice doc, but wish it had subtitles. Quite hard to hear what the people, even narrator, are saying sometimes due to other noise or just generally them speaking quietly or mumbling/slurring.
Was very informative. The only problem was, it was difficult to hear the voices because of all the background music that was louder than the voices. Many of these people still choose to remain homeless and on the street. They are offered help but refuse it because they don’t like the rules and regulations that go with the programs that help. They want help only on their terms.
I watch alot of documentary’s and this one was incredible. I found each person sincere and soulful and unfortunate. I really felt their sorrow and strength in all they encountered. It wouldn’t be easy to lose everything and live outside with nobody to help you or respect you. Sad how powerful drugs and or circumstances can be. I really thought Judy was very intellegent and the man who went to prison for 20 years was outrageous and cruel as if losing his family was not enough punishment. Thank you for sharing their voices.
You just can’t play with drugs and win. Even rich addicts from the rock world will tell you that. There just seems to be nothing in this Atlanta drug scene that could do so much as entice you away from it. If that were me out there, some real serious intervention against my own will would be welcome and desirable! Bring tough-love intervention on right away, man, ‘ya know what i’m sayin?’
wow.
my heart goes out to the man who lost his daughter and wife in a car accident. i cannot believe the justice system. it’s a piece of crock. if i lived in his city, i would definitely start up donation and get his story out there. it makes me SICK he was put to jail, meanwhile his wife and daughter were killed senselessly.
nice and intimate short documentary about an obscene drug pandemic called crack.
I’ve watched other docs regarding the same subject: crack addiction, but delving more into the fearsome underworld of addiction, hustling, lost souls all to a rock.
Can DH try to upload this
great documentary called “Crackheads Gone Wild: Scared Straight ”
http://www.strimoo.com/video/12759378/Crackheads-Gone-Wild-Scared-Straight-MySpaceVideos.htmlCrackheads Gone Wild: Scared Straight – MySpaceVideos – Strimoo.com http://www.strimoo.com
He says, “We’ll get you some” to the lady who said she was willing to smoke crack on camera. I’m cool with journalist reporting, but when you encourage someone to use crack, just so you can film it. You’re sick man, I hope you get arrested for that.
Bet you dont give money to beggars as they’ll go off and buy drugs with it……..
I don’t think it encouraged it, they would get it anyway obviously, and if they bought it for them, it saved them $5 for food..or from stealing from a store..y’know? If they paid them for the interview they’d just spend it on more crack. It’s the addiction.
I think it’s important, if you do drug and your friends do drugs to make sure that their doing safer drugs or at least keeping it in moderation.
I’m from a nice suburb of Atlanta and when I go into the city I rarely see the homeless. The police do a “nice” job of keeping them from view in downtown. If we could see them as they are I believe there would be more help from society. We do not need to cover up the problem but it needs to be out like an open wound, only then can we start to try to fix the issues of homelessness and addiction. We try to live in our perfect world in an “out of sight out of mind” environment. The scripture says “When you do unto the least of these you do unto me”. You never know when you are entertaining angels. All of these people were at sometime children…and what did we do wrong? Where did we fail them? Was it a father who wasn’t there? Was it an abuser who took their virtue? Was it a teacher who failed to see their potential? Was it a police man or social worker who failed them? Until you know their background then leave it to God to judge them.
Im not religious personally Ej, but still beautiful words. I don’t look down on these people as lesser humans, it is merely the card they have been dealt, which sadly can bring people to such turmoil. Factors such as, the family they were born into, abuse they suffered when younger, society and people failing them, being exposed to far too much too young. All these factors create hurt and pain in individuals and some individuals looks for means to numb and take away this pain e.g. drugs, alcohol etc. Thanks for your word of wisdom, i wish there were more people in society who could understand and see it this way. Everyone is a product of their environment and upbringing, there is no escaping that.
Very personal accounts of lives destroyed by drugs and bad circumstances. I really felt for the guy who said he had lucked into the money for some boots so he could get a job, then the boots got stolen and some woman passed by shouting, “get a job.” Yeah, we need to remember that homeless people and addicts are victims of circumstance, not just jerks with bad habits. There but for the grace of God go I.
Yes i liked this doc too, also agree with difficultly in understanding dialects however feel like it added to the ambience of the documentary (subtitles would helped).Corey Davis is extremely talented, his simple and stark filming of these individuals perfectly captures and expresses a sad and very real problem in society .
I liked this film too. Was amazed by the intelligence and insight some of these people had. However, I had a hard time deciphering what Judy was saying. Sometimes the music drowned out the dialogue. I would have loved more captioning because the accents were hard to understand. (I’m from Canada).
This is a good one. It’s like a short window into their world. Well worth a watch. Good music as well, I recognised Crustation but does anyone know the others?
your talking about cody arent you?
I once knew a man who did crack and he is not here anymore!
Good, short documentary about what a day in the life of a crack head is like. The filmmaker did a great job showing a true side to the homelessness in Atalanta. The editing was so well done that it showed an amazing sense of depth and harsh reality that these people live in everyday.