A Respectable Life

All This Mayhem

July 2014 •English

A searing account of what happens when raw talent and extreme personalities collide. In this unflinching, never-before-seen account of drugs and the dark side of professional skateboarding, brothers Tas and Ben Pappas' intense bond and charisma take them from the pinnacle of their sport into a spiraling world of self-destruction.

Jim Morrison: The End

July 2021 •French

Paris, Rue Beautreillis, July 3, 1971. The corpse of rock star Jim Morrison is found in a bathtub, in the apartment of his girlfriend Pamela Courson. The chronicle of the last months of the life of the poet, singer and charismatic leader of the American band The Doors, one of the most influential in the history of rock.

Kids On Ice

October 2014 •English

Quiet towns across rural Australia are in the grip of an Ice epidemic. Major international drug cartels are working with local outlawed motorcycle gangs to push crystal meth to a captive market of children.

Jarmok márnosti

January 1974 •Slovak

Prescription Thugs

January 2016 •English

Americans consume 75% of the world’s prescription drugs. After losing his own brother to the growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse, documentarian Chris Bell sets out to demystify this insidious addiction. Bell’s examination into the motives of big pharma and doctors in this ever-growing market leads him to meet with experts on the nature of addiction, survivors with first-hand accounts of their struggle, and whistleblowers who testify to the dollar-driven aims of pharmaceutical corporations. Ultimately his investigation will point back to where it all began: his own front door.

Katka

February 2010 •Czech

“You bet on someone in the beginning of the process and then you wait and see what life does with them.” This is how Czech director Helena Trestikova explains her long-term documentaries. Following on from the European Film Academy Award winning RENE (2008), Trestikova brings us KATKA – 14 years in the life of a drug addict. KATKA is an extraordinarily raw and uncensored character portrait of a troubled young woman living on the edge of human existence, desperately searching for love and salvation. Will she find it in the rehab? Will she find it in the arms of the man she loves? Or in the first cry of her long-desired baby? Tagging along with her through the back streets and squalors of Prague, Trestikova gets deep under the skin of a person most of us would cross the road to avoid, and shows us Katka’s profoundly human face. You might be angry with Katka, or your heart may go out to her. One thing is certain – you will never forget her.

Philip K Dick: A Day in the Afterlife

April 1994 •English

A poetic look at the life and legacy of legendary author Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), who wrote over a hundred short stories and 44 novels of mind-bending sci-fi, exploring themes of authority, drugs, theology, mental illness and much more.

Bliss

January 2019 •English

After a tragic series of events in his life, Rob discovers the over-the-counter drug known as codeine. The effects of the pill are so strong and addictive, that soon, Rob becomes dependant and consumes them daily. But the less he feels the more he misses, as his life degrades into a deep, dangerous, oblivion of bliss.

Rekordåren 66/67/68

May 1969 •Swedish

Critical documentary about urban planning in the city of Stockholm. Made by students at the Swedish Film Institute's film school. The film created a great debate in Swedish media and especially between the film institute's CEO Harry Schein and the filmmakers.

Reindeerspotting: Escape from Santaland

April 2010 •Finnish

Reindeerspotting is a documentary film of a group of young guys living in Rovaniemi, Arctic Circle, dabbling in petty crime and hard drugs. One of them, Jani, has lost five years of his life and two fingers to his debotators. He wants to leave Lapland and his old life behind. Robbing a supermarket is a start for his getaway. A few years back a documentarist, Joonas Neuvonen, was a young men living on social welfare, using drugs on daily basis. He started to film his friends and their life. This is the story of Jani.

Father of the City

June 2001 •Swedish

A film about "the father" of Malmö Eric Svenning and how the city has developed during his time.

Invisible

February 2005 •Bulgarian

The story of six young people addicted to heroin in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Who Killed Nancy?

April 2009 •English

On October 12th, 1978, New York Police discovered the lifeless body of a young woman, slumped under the bathroom sink in a hotel room. She was Nancy Spungen, an ex-prostitute, sometimes stripper, heroin addict, and girlfriend of Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious.

Never Die Young

September 2014 •French

An unnamed man narrates the downward trajectory of his life from beyond the grave, from delinquency to the string of fateful decisions and foolhardy moves that tied him inextricably to the opiate that was the elusive love of his life.

They Call Us Misfits

March 1968 •Swedish

A documentary film depicting a group of young boys from Stockholm which live on the outskirts of society. The film is the first part of a trilogy.

Misfits to Yuppies

April 1993 •Swedish

Misfits to Yuppies is the last of three films (Dom kallar oss mods, Ett anständigt liv, Det sociala arvet) that shows conditions for addicts in Stockholm and try to find out how social legacy have been transferred to their children from previous films.

Ciao! Manhattan

April 1973 •English

Fiction and documentary mingle in a freewheeling portrait of Susan Superstar, a New York celebrity on a drug-fueled downward slide that mirrors Edie Sedgwick’s own self-destructive spiral.

The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story

March 2003 •English

The full bizarre, tragic but celebratory story of Syd Barrett, the co-founder of Pink Floyd.

Youth Suicide Fantasy

January 1985 •English

Based on their book, “Why Knock Rock?”, and their church lectures, Dan and Steve Peters examines how rock music's obsession with sex, drugs and suicide is dangerous to young people. Since the dawn of Rock and Roll, there has been ministers howling about its evil affects. Ministers would tour the country's churches and college campuses with sermons and slide shows illustrating the Devil's influence on the rock music. In this film we certainly see that rock stars aren't the best role models for kids and teens, but the Peters brothers often miss the musician's point – especially with some of the lyrics. Dan and Steve do however seem to take a delight in presenting some of the 1980s more perverse album covers to young people.

Truth About Rock

January 1989 •English

For the past year or so, brothers Jim and Steve Peters, both ordained ministers, have been traveling around the nation on a mission from God. Convinced that rock and roll is "one of the largest satanic forces in the country," they have been exhorting American kids to build bonfires of albums in public places.