Edwardsville filmmakers produce ‘The Heroin Project’

Although Edwardsville filmmakers Ashley Seering and Cory Byers focused on Madison County for their documentary, the film could have been shot in any town in the USA, as the heroin epidemic is reaching beyond urban centers out to the suburbs and small towns.

“The Heroin Project” raises awareness about the widespread but under-discussed problem that affects the entire country.

“Beyond the monetary cost of increased law-enforcement efforts and goods stolen from businesses, the negative aspects of heroin are more accurately measured in the ever-growng number of lives lost,” Seering said.

Last year, 26 deaths attributed to heroin were confirmed in Madison County.

The idea for the documentary started while Seering was a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. The mass communications department was working with the Madison County State’s Attorney and local school district to create shorter videos that would be shown in schools about the heroin issue.

“When I was about to graduate, I started shooting the Madison County Heroin Task Force meetings for the State’s Attorney’s office and that’s where I got the idea to do a documentary about the subject. Cory and I had worked together many times before on short docs and other projects, so I approached him with the idea. He thought it was worth pursuing,” she said.

Byers, the co-director, is an instructor in the Mass Communications Department at SIUE.

“Troy Police Officer Chris Coyne and the State’s Attorney’s office deserve a lot of credit because they directed us to the family members who are featured and helped organize a lot of the shoots,” she said. “We worked over the course of a year, so we would schedule an interview, shoot it, and then I started piecing everything together in February of this year. We did some extra re-enactment shoots and a follow-up interview to help finish the story. It was a long process but very worth it in the end.”

The biggest challenge was editing the many hours of interview footage to 54 minutes.

“We wanted to be informative but it was also important that we kept the integrity of the families’ stories intact. We also shot some re-enactments, so figuring out where those fit and how they would help tell the overall story was also a challenge,” she said. “The film really developed on its own as we were shooting and editing. Cory and I didn’t intend on making it an hour long when we started, but we kept getting so much good information that we felt like most of it needed to be included.

“We kept the interview set-ups very small, usually just myself and Cory, so that the people talking would feel comfortable. We had not met most of the interviewees prior to the day we interviewed them, so it was important to us that they feel like they could share their stories and that we would tell them the right way.”

Some current and former SIUE students were part of the film as well, both as actors and crew. Officer Chris Coyne, State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons, Coroner Steve Nonn, DEA Special Agent in Charge James Shroba, Donna Nahlik and Susan Taylor of Chestnut Health Systems, Kari Karidis, Jennifer Parker, and Dave and Brad Admire are also featured.

“We funded the film with an IndieGoGo campaign, so we owe a lot of credit to the many people who have been supportive of the film,” she said.

Seering graduated in 2014 with a B.A. in mass communications. She grew up in Mascoutah and had an interest in television and film, but didn’t get into production until college. Today, she owns a company, Night Owl Productions, and does corporate work, music videos and short films.

“But my passion is documentaries,” she said.

A 10-minute film about the Kingshighway DIY Skate Park by Seering and Byers screened at the Filmmakers Showcase last summer. It also played at festivals in Los Angeles, Australia, Carbondale, and a few other places.

As for what’s next, they plan to host more screenings locally of ‘The Heroin Project.”

“We’ve submitted the film to a variety of film festivals as well. Cory and I almost always have another project in the works, and we’ll definitely continue to produce documentaries,” she said.

The movie will be screened at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Tivoli.

This story was originally published July 19, 2015 at 11:45 AM with the headline "Edwardsville filmmakers produce ‘The Heroin Project’."