On 23 July Dutch Drugs Stories goes international. We will screen two very intense, unique and inspiring documentaries:

• ‘Kostya Proletarsky’ is an animation film that tells the story of an HIV activist who used drugs and who died after being mistreated and tortured in Russian prison

• ‘The Doctor Franjo Groterhermen’ is a documentary about the life of one of the pioneers in Germany for medicinal cannabis .

[for synopsis see below]

Doors open at 19:00h. You get the chance to visit the Dutch Drugs Stories expo. The first documentary starts at 19:30h, followed by some time to catch your breath, have a short debate about the film and have a drink at the bar. The second documentary starts at 20:15h. After the movie there is a Q&A with the film maker. Aleksi Hupli, film-maker and board member of Legalize! is also present to answer burning questions.

Your ticket also grants you access to another documentary that we can highly recommend and that we encourage you to watch at home (check the secret link on the pdf of your ticket).

Kostya Proletarsky (Russia)

On 19 June 2009 Kostya Proletarsky, a drug user and HIV activist, died of tuberculosis meningitis at the Botkin Hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia. His death was the result of three years of mistreatment and torture at the prison facility No. 4 in Karelia, Russia. In Russia, where drug treatment is barely available, imprisonment becomes the main “solution” to the problem of drug addiction. The animated hand drawn documentary, featuring the original audio interview with Kostya and his mother, Irina, aims to commemorate Kostya Proletarsky and many others who have not survived prison systems around the world.

The animated movie is produced by the Rights Reporter Foundation, narrated by Anya Sarang, directed by István Gábor Takács, and is hand drawn frame by frame by Lili Rontó.

The Doctor Franjo Groterhermen (Germany)

Franjo Grotenhermen is a documentary about the life of one of the pioneers in Germany for medicinal cannabis . The documentary takes place during the Cannabinoid Conference in Berlin 2019. It’s a journey through his life and work of the last 30 years.

Edu Hernandez was born in Spain and he is a filmmaker and a photographer focused on journalism/documentary. In 2014 he began to work at SCOPIC, one of the pioneer companies of VR content creation in Europe.

Soon he realized that VR offered different story-telling capabilities for journalism, to be able to showcase the reality of today’s social and political import issues.

His documentary “Refugees” has already won 3 film festivals, it has been nominated in 6 other festivals and it was also selected to raise awareness to the world leaders during the World Government Summit 2017 in Dubai.