Movie to show the reality of fentanyl

MILLERTON — “Mourning the loss of my precious son, Danny, writing has become a therapeutic activity. Words, however, often seem inadequate to describe how his death has affected our family and changed our lives forever.”

This is how Linda Lajterman opens her 2014 memoir, “Life After You: What Your Death From Drugs Leaves Behind.” In the immediate wake of finding her 19-year-old son dead in their suburban New Jersey home after overdosing on heroin laced with fentanyl, Lajterman turned her grief into writing and turned her writing into an ongoing dialogue with other parents.

In the years since, the overdose-related death toll has risen, and heroin and opiates have tightened their grip on American youth.

“Life After You” has been adapted into an independent film by director Sarah T. Schwab, who penned the screenplay with actress Florencia Lozano, who plays Linda Lajterman. On Saturday, Feb. 11, the Moviehouse will offer two special screenings of the film at 2 and 5 p.m. After each screening, there will be a talkback moderated by producer Brian Long with Lajterman and Dora Celestino, community prevention educator for the Council on Addiction Prevention and Education. “We’ve been partnering with independent movie theaters and groups in the Northeast, coming into communities and trying to bring awareness to the issue,” Schwab said from California during a phone interview.

She was drawn to the rawness of Lajterman’s writing on a terrifying but common reality. “Linda wanted to scare the hell out of kids and make parents aware of what’s happening out there. Danny’s death blindsided her entire family. She didn’t see any signs,” Schwab said. Drug-related deaths in America have escalated since the death of Danny Lajterman, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting an increase from over 47,000 in 2015 to over 100,000 in 2022. Last week in Maine, the state’s attorney general released a year-end assessment reporting 10,000 overdoses in 2022, with nearly 80% of fatal overdoses caused by fentanyl.

“When Florencia Lozano and I cowrote this film together, we decided we really wanted to tell the Lajterman family’s experience, not Danny’s, and show the process of how each family member grieves differently.” The team made a conscious choice to avoid showing any drug use on the screen, straying from the well-tread point of view of a person in the throes of addiction. “Life After You” focuses exclusively on the effect lethal doses of fentanyl have on the family left behind, as the parents process their emotions in the aftermath of tragedy.

Schwab had the difficult task of not only adapting a book with a brutal topic but depicting real people at the most vulnerable, harrowing point of their lives. “You want to do the family justice, while also bringing authenticity to their story and getting the audience talking about this issue and hopefully eliminating the stigma around addiction.”

Showing the film to audiences brings up plenty of emotions for the team behind it. “The screenings can be overwhelming,” said Schwab, “even though it’s a beautiful thing that the film inspires people to talk. We have heard from people going through addiction, who have a loved one who is currently suffering, who know someone in recovery, or who have died, and they feel comfortable sharing their stories with us. We want to create a space where they can share or get help.”