"By the end of the film, you're pulling for James and Holly to do well," he said. "It's utterly fascinating and frightening at the same time. As much as you don't like them because they're meth addicts who have kids, you care about them because they're humans who have children."

Hunt said he talked to a lot of meth addicts during the shooting of the movie, and many of the people who come out to see the film are active drug users or those trying to break the addiction. He doesn't know what draws them to the theaters, but he knows how to spot those who have used the drug.

"It's really in their eyes," he said. "I really think that's how you spot a meth addict, because they carry a shame about them that other people don't carry. It doesn't matter what their background is, it doesn't matter where they come from — if they're in that world, you can see it by looking them in the eye."

Hunt said the shame is the result of using a drug that takes people "to a place that we're not meant to go."

"I've talked to people who have been off of it for 10 years, and they're still scared to death of it," Hunt said. "Yes, they're recovering, but I don't think they ever truly recover. I don't want people to think recovery is impossible — it's not."

Jeff Freestone, an OSHA-approved safety instructor at the Uintah Basin Applied Technology College, is responsible for Hunt's trip to the Uintah Basin. Freestone said he first became aware of the prevalence of meth in the region when he attended a conference sponsored by the Vernal Police Department in May 2006.

"Once I recognized that there was a significant meth problem in Vernal, that got me going to teach a meth class in Vernal," he said.

Freestone said he frequently has students who talk about their experiences with meth. He said he was talking with his sister in New Mexico about what he was hearing in the classroom, and she suggested he contact Hunt.

"She said his approach is unique and different, and you should get to know him," Freestone said.

After a meeting over coffee, Hunt agreed to bring "American Meth" to Vernal. A second showing was later arranged for Roosevelt.

The Roosevelt show is 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Roosevelt Junior High School auditorium. The Vernal show is 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Cinema 5 Theaters, 1400 W. Highway 40. Both shows are sponsored by the college and are free to the public.

Hunt said he doesn't get much immediate reaction from people who watch his movie, which isn't visually graphic but does contain language that might be offensive. He said it normally takes a few days before comments start trickling in by e-mail or on his MySpace site. Many of those comments focus not on the language in the film or on its brutal realism but on the desire to combat meth.

"There's this patriotic sense in every American, and I really believe that to a certain degree, we'll put up with something until we get pissed off, and then we'll do something about," Hunt said. "I think we're finally reaching that point with meth.

"That's the difference, I think, with 'American Meth,'" he added. "People leave the theater with an ambition to do something, and they may not even know what that something is, but they want to do something, and it does create hope."

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E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com