A local documentary premiering at the Durango Independent Film Festival tells the stories of some of those affected by substance abuse in the Durango area, following them as they participate in an adventure rafting trip for those in recovery.
“The Flow We Find” documents a five-day float trip along the Colorado River led by All Forward Adventures’ Rafting 4 Recovery program and the Durango chapter of Young People in Recovery for those who have been impacted by substance use.
The film features the stories of three Durango-area community members as they recount their and their loved ones’ experiences with addiction. It aims to localize substance abuse and reveal opportunities for redemption while highlighting the recovery solutions that already exist in Durango and destigmatizing recovery.
“There are very few people that become addicts for no reason. It just doesn't work that way,” said Shane Nelson, owner and founder of All Forward Adventures and the film’s director. “There are contributing factors, and when you’re able to acknowledge those, you can work on your responsibility to heal and to address them.”
“The Flow We Find” captures the personal stories of Sara Molitor, Lauri Schell and Cruz Baca, three Durango-area community members whose lives have been affected by addiction.
Molitor struggled with substance abuse before becoming active in Durango’s recovery community, and Schell lost her son Jake, a Durango High School alumnus, to an accidental overdose.
Parts of Baca’s story will be familiar to those in Durango. He was arrested and sentenced to two years in community corrections and 10 years of probation after a hit-and-run on College Drive that seriously injured two people.
But after spending time in jail in La Plata County and Albuquerque and entering recovery, Baca began working with Young People in Recovery, a Denver-based recovery advocacy group, and mentoring those who struggle with substance abuse.
Baca become a certified recovery coach and now works as the general manager of a hotel while helping to lead the local chapter of Young People in Recovery.
All three participated in the rafting trip, which was a partnership between All Forward Adventures and Young People in Recovery. In September, the two organizations brought together 17 people affected substance abuse for the experience.
“The whole trip is oriented around recovery and bringing a community together,” said Candice Seay, national chapter coordinator for Young People in Recovery and the head of Durango’s local chapter. “... Every single activity that we did was curated to help foster connections; a popular phrase is the opposite of addiction is connection. We wanted to make sure that we were providing a space where people felt like they belonged.”
During the trip, Nelson, Seay and others led hikes and other group activities and discussions that focused on identity. The goal was to disconnect participants from their addictions.
“When you get people out of their environment and away from the things that keep reinforcing their identity – what they are and what they are not – you get them in that place of wilderness,” Nelson said. “It provides you room to reflect on who you are and how you got to be this way.”
For Baca, the rafting trip was profound.
“Each of us picked something and we released those pieces of ourselves and left them there in Moab,” he said. “Words do not do it justice, the emotions and the freedom that I experienced on that trip.”
In addition to following the trip and the stories of some of its participants, the film points to Young People in Recovery and Rafting 4 Recovery as ongoing solutions to substance abuse in Durango.
Young People in Recovery serves as a hub for those in recovery in the area, offering a community of supporters, recovery meetings and social events.
Seay, Baca and the Durango chapter organize barbecues, art nights and other sober activities. They even have a kickball team in the city’s recreation league that calls itself “Kicking the Habit.”
The Young People in Recovery model is designed to meet the diverse needs of those struggling with abuse.
“We really embrace the many paths of recovery,” Seay said. “There are some traditional recovery modalities that are really well known (like Alcoholics Anonymous) and have been very effective for a lot of people, but they’re not appealing to everybody. There needs to be like multiple doors for people to walk through if a particular program doesn’t fit their niche.”
Part of the organization’s mission is to show young people that the cycle of addiction can by broken by meaningful connection with others, Baca said.
“If we can provide these services like Young People in Recovery for these younger kids before they go down that road that I went down, which is 20-plus years of addiction and struggle, it will literally change the world,” he said.
Like Young People in Recovery, Nelson and Rafting 4 Recovery offer an alternative to more traditional recovery programs that are often centered on faith. Instead, Nelson uses the power of the environment to help those in recovery or struggling with addiction heal.
“The wilderness is honest. It doesn’t have the capacity to lie to you,” Nelson, a licensed school psychologist who has also worked at Animas High School, said. “... Nature is so pure and raw and it cuts right to the core of a person, directly to the root of the problem. That core of the person is also the root of the solution.”
While rafting, participants must be present, and the desert environment and activities of the trip help people undergo the intensive and emotional introspection that ultimately leads to change, he said.
“We have the solutions within us, we just need help to cultivate them,” he said.
Nelson also runs rafting trips that help veterans, many of whom struggle with trauma and substance use.
When fundraising for the trips, which are free or low-cost, Nelson finds immediate and widespread support. But donors quickly dry up for trips that serve community members who have experienced substance abuse.
“When I say I’m raising money for people in addiction, the hands go to the hips, and they’re like, ‘Good for you. I hope that works out,’” he said. “There is absolutely a change in the way a person sees an addict versus a veteran (with) addiction issues.”
Baca has experienced the stigma of addiction firsthand. He hopes that by showing his story the film can help the Durango community realize that substance abuse affects many families in the area, and that recovery is possible.
“(Addiction and recovery) doesn’t look like the people under the bridge,” he said. “Addicts and drug users that are really deep into their use turn into people like me with the right resources.”
Nelson and Seay envision the film paving the way for greater community support and investment in substance abuse services and programs, as well as prevention.
“The more people start to understand why addiction happens, it helps create more compassion because these stories are rooted in trauma,” Seay said. “When people can gain some compassion and then also see that people can and do recover, it helps increase support.”
“The Flow We Find” premieres during the Durango Independent Film Festival at 8 p.m. Friday at the Durango Arts Center.
ahannon@durangoherald.com
