Dutch Junkies compiles two documentaries about modern addiction. Heddy Honigmann's Emoticons turns the stereotype of Internet addicts being primarily male on its head, introducing us to a diverse group of young women who cling to the Internet as a social lifeline. We meet a 14-year-old girl who is bullied at school but forges positive allegiances online, an Algerian 10th grader seeking political asylum, a 17-year-old rape victim, and others coping with illness, loneliness, family strife, or all of the above. Are these girls truly disconnected, Honigmann asks, or do we need to redefine what constitutes healthy connectedness? The second film, John Appel's There Goes My Heart offers an inside look at a home for elderly drug addicts who now have a safe haven after a life on the streets. While both films are Dutch, the lives of the girls in Emoticons will resonate with American and other Western viewers, but it's hard to imagine a legal home for elderly addicts existing in the U.S. Because Appel's subjects are speaking to him from a position of security and relative well-being, his documentary offers an unusually honest perspective on the ravages of lifelong drug abuse (some of the people profiled are clearly mentally ill—although whether this is a cause or an effect of abusing their bodies isn't clear—while others are simply terribly pathetic in their delusions that they will ever recover enough to lead healthy lives). DVD extras are limited to text bios of the directors. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Johanson)
Dutch Junkies
(2007) 113 min. In Dutch w/English subtitles. DVD: $24.99. Pathfinder Home Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). Volume 24, Issue 3
Dutch Junkies
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