Thoughts on Higher Love (2020) Slamdance 2020

This may have been the first truly great film I saw for Slamdance. It is a film that haunted me for days after I saw it. It is a tough tough film about what drugs are doing to society.

The focus of the film is Daryl Gant a resident of Camden New Jersey. Daryl has a good job and tries to stay out of trouble. When his girlfriend Nani gives birth to a son Daryl has to struggle to take care of the child since Nani is an addict and can very easily fall off the wagon. The film also shows us the story of Iman, a friend of the couple who was was an engineer until he started dealing and became addicted.

If you don't want to see the real cost of addiction  stay away. This is an in your face film that does not shy away from showing us the high cost of drugs on our communities and on our bodies. It also powerfully shows us in no uncertain terms the toll it takes not only on the addicts but the lives of the people who love them. As having heard the  statement "why don't they just walk away" in regard to the friends and family of the addicts, this film makes it painfully clear why that isn't always an option.

I was repulsed, troubled and deeply moved. As I watched the film I found that I kept wanting to stop the film and walk away, I didn't want to see this, I need to see this and yet I kept watching because director Hasan Oswald kept filming and thus kept insisting, rightly that I needed to. When it was done I seriously considered walking away and not writing it up simply because I didn't want to revisit the film. However despite my best efforts not to think about it, I couldn't stop. Hours after seeing the film I found I was thinking about how to attack a review. I also came home and had a discussion on line with a friend about how I couldn't shake the film and hw it might be the first great film I saw for Slamdance.

Days passed, more movies have come and gone and still HIGHER LOVE hangs with me.  I still don't want to talk about the film largely because I really don't have the words to describe it in a way that does it justice. I think that all I can say is all what needs to be said- HIGHER LOVE is a great film and is must see.