Posted: 04/25/2005

Crackhead University

(2005)

by Rory L. Aronsky

Available from Tapeworm Home Video Distributors.

Newburgh, New York lost its life a long time ago to crack cocaine, which overpowered an already-dying city to the point where some of the citizens weren’t citizens anymore, just empty souls wandering around, looking for another fix and then another and then another. Writer/director/producer Natural Drye takes this into major account with “Crackhead University”, in which he observes one of the major reasons cinema exists: To take us places where we’ve never gone and aren’t likely to see in our lifelong waking state.

By leaving the names of the varied interviewees for the end credits, Drye establishes Newburgh as a saddeningly poor city trying desperately to pull itself together somehow. However, those in the more populated areas aren’t likely to give way toward anything that would help Newburgh become Newburgh again. The buildings are rundown just as much as the people are here. Through a chain of them, we learn about the drug problems they have encountered, the way their lives have been inexorably scarred from these experiences, and how they’re trying to pull themselves up to the point where they feel they are people again, living working people. But how does that transpire in Newburgh? How can one hope beyond any level of hope to find their way free of crack cocaine, to face that day when they can wake up and know that they are alive once again?

The bitter truth is that not a lot of them do. Some want to raise their kids away from Newburgh. They want an environment more suitable and less dangerous. Some have kicked their tragic drug habit, but don’t seem like they’ll head to other places anytime soon. There’s an older man named Ron, who was a cross-addicted alcoholic, meaning he was addicted to drugs and alcohol. While 10 years of recovery have lifted some troubles off of his shoulders, it is startling that he is standing in front of the camera, talking. Ron was addicted that way for 38 years, from 12 to 50 years old. Somehow, some way, to some of the people here, God’s will must be sweeping through somehow, even if He offers little consolation.

Drye’s intentions of profiling Newburgh and this problem that plagues them is noble. In one section of the film, he even stands up for the people when the director of the Glenn E. Hines Memorial Center Boys & Girls Club proceeds to tell us that things have improved her, people that are part of the program tend to pull their lives onward toward more fulfilling days. In fact, he says that the city’s current African-American female mayor was in the Boys & Girls Club when she was younger. Drye keeps the director’s voice rambling on the track while his camera pans across the desolate buildings and ramshackle establishments that now constitute this city. The director claims improvement, but where are the changes? Where has the hope gone?

“Crackhead University” does have a major issue in its running time. It’s understandable what’s been done here to this documentary. Nowadays, 35 to 40 to 45 minutes doesn’t cut it. That’s a short film and there’s not a major market for that. Movie theaters show feature films, not short films. The only places you’re likely to come upon short films are at film festivals and on the Internet, and the Internet doesn’t always pay the bills. Therefore, “Crackhead University” is afforded a 65 minute running time and it’s not always a useful jumble of minutes. Because what we have here is not only the usual messages to stay off drugs, stories about being on and off drugs, but there’s a feeling of disorganization within this, a kind of listlessness. Over and over and over again, we get the same information that leads us straight to the shores of redundancy. These people are important for the stories that they have to tell, but there’s no real thru-line. At least Drye manages to pack the anti-drug message at the beginning. While watching this, a worry formed that there’d be this rah-rah anti-drug message at the end and those are some of the most useless propaganda that have ever been formed by the government or any kind of organization. The message is important of course, but it’s in the way that it’s presented that’s even more important. With the lack of any kind of path leading us through this world, the stories of drug use are here and there and over there and somewhere else. They’re never packed together, which would make a more forceful imprint in the minds of whomever watches this.

Being that this documentary was made in 1999, there’s no telling where these people are today. Some of them could be dead, some of them could still be around on the streets of Newburgh, wondering, waiting, and hoping. Despite the over extended running time, Drye is a good man for having brought these people about. Drugs are a major problem in many spots of our country and at least the awareness is out there, even if the problem takes years upon years to eliminate.

Rory L. Aronsky of Saugus, CA, is an aspiring full-time film critic and also writes for Film Threat. Additionally, he is a student at College of the Canyons in Valencia.

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