Scanner Darkly
2019

Shotgun Cinema New Orleans, LA

with

Alison Gaye

Chairwoman, CrescentCares Transgender Advisory Board

A Scanner Darkly— Understanding harm reduction

Public health organizer Alison Gaye explains how harm-reduction approaches minimize the most damaging impacts of drug use, and describes current harm reduction efforts in New Orleans and how citizens can help prevent overdose deaths.

Shotgun Cinema New Orleans, LA

Film Synopsis

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

Based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly tells the story of a near-future dystopia in which America has virtually lost the war on drugs. Robert Arctor (Keanu Reeves), a narcotics cop in Orange County, California, is undercover so deep that he has become an addict. He is wooing Donna (Winona Ryder), a dealer, to ferret out her supplier. At the same time, he receives orders to spy on his housemates (Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane), one of whom is suspected of being Donna's biggest customer.

Photo credit: Warner Brothers

About the Speaker

Alison Gaye is a public health organizer in New Orleans. Working in harm reduction, transgender advocacy, and the intersections of the two, she is the chairwoman of CrescentCares Transgender Advisory Board and coordinates the New Orleans Syringe Access Program.