IoPPN Presents: Stories of Addiction and Recovery - Screening & Discussion

Join us for six award-winning short films from Recovery Street Film Festival 2025, exploring addiction, recovery, & the power of community.

Join the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) during Dry January for an inspiring showcase of lived-experience filmmaking. This special event - hosted in partnership with the Recovery Street Film Festival (RSFF) - features six award-winning short films from RSFF 2025, exploring addiction, recovery, and the power of community.

Following around 30 minutes of screenings, there will be a panel discussion chaired by Professor Sally Marlow, with panel members including the RSFF’s Creative Director, Maddie Kitchen, FRSA; filmmaker Alex Mazonowicz, creator of ‘IS’; and Nicola Hollinshead from Islington People’s Theatre. Together, they will discuss how creative storytelling can support healing, foster connection, challenge stigma, and build understanding. We will end the evening with an opportunity for networking and conversations.

Timings:

Screening: 17:30

Panel Discussion: 18:00

Networking: 19:00

About the Recovery Street Film Festival

For over a decade, the Recovery Street Film Festival has invited amateur filmmakers with lived experience of alcohol or other drug use—either personally or through someone close to them—to share their stories on film.

What began with screenings in public and community spaces, including literally on the street, has grown into a national festival, with films viewed over one million times.

RSFF centres and elevates the voices of people directly impacted by substance use, exploring both individual and interconnected experiences. The films often reveal the reality of stigma, discrimination, loss, and the honesty and courage required to reach out for support. They also highlight the strength of community, the possibility of transformation, and the hope that recovery can inspire.

The festival is run by Sobriety Films UK CIC, alongside a cross-sector steering group including Phoenix Futures, Waythrough, Adfam, Turning Point, and Project Six. The festival opens for entries each May, with judging taking place August–September.

At this event, RSFF will be screening the winning films from the most recent festival.

For more information:

www.rsff.co.uk

www.sobrietyfilms.com

THE FILMS

Sons of Jericho by Alex Black & Laura Roberts

This is a film of a band who formed in rehab through the love of music and wanted to show that you can have fun and spread a message of hope and fun in recovery. This was filmed by a group of novice filmmakers who met in recovery and are chasing their passion of creating films.

The Light Side by Lucy Rocca & David McCollom

The Light Side" is a short film about recovery, creativity, and reclaiming identity. Narrated by Lucy Rocca, it shows how writing and the Soberistas community helped her heal from her drinking, dissolving shame through storytelling.

REACH by Kayleigh Gibbons

This film explores the challenging first step toward recovery - reaching out for help. Using animation, it conveys the isolation Kayleigh felt and how creativity helped her process and express the deep emotions and transformative moments of her journey.

The Women’s Recovery Mural by Maddie Kitchen

Over six months, the Women’s Recovery group from Better Lives, Islington’s Drug & Alcohol Service, came together to transform Caledonian Park with a mural of hope and creative healing. From first sketches and paintbrushes in hand, to its unveiling with Mayor Jason Jackson, their journey was one of empowerment, courage, and connection.

IS by Alex Mazonowicz

This short film traces Alex’s recovery journey through music — from early days of sobriety playing the theremin, to life in Turkey, to joining the New Note Orchestra and performing at the Royal Opera House. Accompanying images reflect growth, travel, community, and the healing power of music.

The Recoverists Nicola Hollinshead

The Recoverists is a short film about Islington People’s Theatre’s Recoverist Theatre Project, directed by Naresh Kaushal. It follows participants in recovery as they use applied theatre to confront stigma, reclaim creativity and confidence, build community, and address social justice issues around addiction—ultimately fostering healing and personal empowerment.

BIOGRAPHIES

Maddie Kitchen FRSA is the Creative Director of the Recovery Street Film Festival and the founder of Sobriety Films UK CIC, a social enterprise that champions addiction recovery, mental health, and wellbeing through the power of film. A producer–director, Maddie’s work has been broadcast on Channel 4, ITV, and screened at national and international film festivals. Her films centre lived experience, challenge stigma, and amplify the voices of communities often underrepresented in mainstream media.

She was nominated to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) for her contributions to using film as an advocacy tool for diverse and inclusive mental health and addiction recovery. Through RSFF and Sobriety Films UK, Maddie leads impactful creative projects rooted in co-production, storytelling, and social justice - bringing people together to drive understanding, connection, and meaningful change.

Alex Mazonowicz is a musician, editor, and recovery-arts advocate whose own journey through addiction and recovery inspired his commitment to using creative expression as a tool for healing, community-building and social change.

He is co-founder and a key figure in Addiction Recovery Arts Network (ARA Network), and editor of its quarterly publication Performing Recovery, which showcases art, music, writing and performance created by — and for — people in recovery.

Alex believes that “the opposite of addiction is creation.” For him, recovery is not only about abstinence — it’s about reclaiming identity, rediscovering joy, reconnecting with community, and using creative arts as a form of self-expression, healing, and challenging stigma.
Through music, writing, editing and community-building, he works to normalise and celebrate recovery as a creative, hopeful, and socially engaged journey — rather than something to hide.

Nicola Hollinshead is an applied-theatre practitioner, drama facilitator, director and researcher, and currently serves as Founder & Creative Director of Islington People's Theatre (IPT), a social-change–focused community theatre company based in Islington, North London.

Key projects include Small Acts of Resistance, a PhD-linked applied-theatre and creative-activism initiative working with marginalised women to explore social justice issues through embodied theatre practices, and the Recoverist Theatre Project, supporting adults in recovery from addiction through drama as a means of healing, empowerment, and self-expression.

Nicola believes strongly in the power of theatre to challenge social inequality, give voice to marginalised experiences, reduce isolation, foster creativity, and support healing.