Meth film provides a warning — and hope

ROOSEVELT — People hear the rumors about meth. Justin Hunt is determined to show them the reality.

Hunt is the independent filmmaker behind the feature-length documentary "American Meth," which he's currently touring around the western United States. The movie will be shown free to the public Tuesday and Wednesday in Roosevelt and then Vernal.

A reporter for an NBC affiliate in New Mexico for eight years, Hunt launched his own production company four years ago. One of his early projects was the movie "Meth Monster," which explored meth use in San Juan County, N.M. When someone suggested the focus of "Meth Monster" was too narrow, the inspiration for "American Meth" was born.

"I got challenged by a friend to try and do something to change people on a larger scale, and this is what I chose to do," Hunt said during a recent telephone interview.

"American Meth" is two movies in one. The first part of the film documents efforts by communities across the West to combat meth. Hunt travels from Oregon to New Mexico meeting people who are addicts and those who are trying to help them. He even stopped briefly last summer in Vernal, where a teenage girl explained that using meth was a way to deal with the boredom of living in small-town Utah.

"It's not a metro drug, it's a rural drug, and it's taking over these communities one little town at a time," Hunt said, citing statistics that show that 82 percent of people who use meth will be addicted to the drug until they die.

For the second part of the documentary narrated by Val Kilmer, Hunt introduces his audience to James and Holly. Hunt spent several days on two separate occasions living with and filming the twenty-something couple as they struggled to stay off meth. He also filmed their four children fending for themselves. The children all suffer from developmental delays because of Holly's drug use during her pregnancies.

"You really get a taste of what that lifestyle is like," Hunt said. "To me, the time with James and Holly is the application to the rumor. You see that they are real people, not just mythological creatures. They're real people dealing with real problems. They live next door to you."

Hunt initially wanted to spend some time filming an active user, capturing their ticks, paranoia and other meth-associated behaviors. But instead of capturing the "freak show," Hunt said, he chose to focus on the possibility that there is hope for those addicted to meth.

"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."