RADNOR, Pa. (AP) - Six months ago, local filmographers Jill Frechie and John Ricciutti were asked to shoot some footage for a business associate who was volunteering to feed children in need at Rock Ministries in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.
Frechie, a resident of Gladwyne, and Ricciutti, of Radnor, had collaborated on projects in the past, so the friends looked at this, at first, as just another job doing something about which they are both passionate - shooting film.
On the day she was going to Kensington, Frechie happened to mention her destination to one of the students in her class at Montgomery County Community College. The student responded with a shocking warning.
“You better wear thick-soled shoes so you don’t get stuck by a needle,” Frechie said the student warned her. “You’re going to get robbed, see people shooting up in the street and lying on the ground, near death. You are taking your life in your hands!”
The unexpected admonishment scared Frechie, she said, but she went ahead with the assignment anyway. When they arrived there, they saw everything that the student had described and more. What happened next was unexpected - she and Ricciutti became so taken with the area and what was happening there as a result of the area’s serious drug plague that they decided to join forces and create a documentary. The “Kensington in Crisis” film project was born. The filmmakers wanted others to see the “badlands” of Kensington to make them aware of what was happening not many miles from most Philadelphia-area residents’ front doors.
“When we left Kensington after our initial project, we just couldn’t get it out of our heads,” Frechie explained. “The epidemic there grabbed us and really took hold. Yes, I did have fear, but I also had compassion. When you come face to face with this situation, you look at it differently. We knew that we needed to tell this story. We had to do something. John and I decided to make a documentary about the heroin epidemic in Kensington to inspire change and get critical help. We want to show how ordinary people, our neighbors, our friends, our family members, end up on the streets here and how it’s affecting the people who live in the Kensington neighborhood. We hope it will inspire people to take ownership of this crisis and how it affects every single one of us.”
Although the filmmakers have released a brief trailer of the film to garner interest, the project is months from completion. Frechie and Ricciutti hope to depict the situation through all four seasons. They began the project in October, and have shot the grueling real-life scenes through fall and winter. They hope to wrap up filming at the end of this summer and have the film ready for viewing by early fall.
The film focuses on the strip of Kensington Avenue from SEPTA’s Frankford bus terminal to Lehigh Avenue, showing clips of two encampments there, as well as “Needle Park,” the colloquial name for a small park there.
Frechie and Ricciutti, co-producers, have seen it all in the few seasons that they’ve talked to those addicted and those trying to help the addicted. So far, they’ve had conversations on film with about a dozen people, from all walks of life and backgrounds, a few of them prostitutes, all of them struggling with addiction. They are all a part of the misery there and of the reality of the addiction that has led them to make a home for themselves, under a bridge, in an alley, an abandoned building or out on a street. White, black, Hispanic, Asian, young, old, doctors, lawyers, mothers, fathers, some clearly new to the avenue, others seasoned veterans of it - they all are there for the same reason, to get high, to find their next fix.
The filmmakers also interviewed residents, a medical doctor, a detox expert at the city’s Kirkbride Center, a social worker and a shop owner, as well as Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan, police inspector of the neighborhood Ray Convery, and Ana Jacobs, a mother whose son was once a street addict but is now recovered, helping her deliver necessities and hope to those living on the streets.
“It’s really important that we tell this story,” Ricciutti said. “The topic couldn’t be more timely. In a New York Times article entitled “Trapped by the Walmart of Heroin,” by Jennifer Percy on Oct. 10, 2018, the writer describes Kensington as “the largest open-air narcotics market for heroin on the East Coast. Addicts come from all over; many never leave. In some strange way, they become like a family and take care of one another. Kensington has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country, yet is one of the most expensive cities for renters. A city count in July found 703 people living on the streets, with more than half in Kensington. Philadelphia has the highest overdose rate of the 10 most populous counties in America and the city’s Department of Health estimates that 75,000 residents are addicted to heroin and other opioids.”
“It’s a plague that we have there,” added Frechie. “Kids from all over, including Delaware, Montgomery, Chester and Bucks counties, take the El there. Some get their fix and leave. Others stay and live on the street there. The statistics, supplied by the officials to whom we spoke, are staggering.”
“When I saw so many young people, ones that not that long ago, had promising futures ahead of them, literally lying in the street, that’s when I knew that I wanted to get involved,” Ricciutti stated. “And being a veteran myself, I hated seeing so many veterans there. Most were given opioids for injuries they got in combat and then were cut off while still in pain, so where do they go? That’s how they end up in Kensington. When you see someone strung out, you just say, ’Oh, he’s on drugs.’ But when you see someone you know on drugs, that’s when you start to be affected by this epidemic. Well, now we all have a family member or a neighbor or someone we know who has been touched by addiction. Now, this problem, this plague, is reality to all of us.”
Frechie nodded her head, asking rhetorically, “it’s frustrating for everyone involved. We carry around Narcan, but where’s the help for the addicted once they are revived? I think everyone is starting to realize that people need long term recovery and 15-30 days in rehab is not going to cut it. We want our film to spark conversations about all of this.”
Frechie is no newcomer to the film making scene. Although she and Ricciutti are creating this film independently, Frechie works as a part-time employee in TV/content management at Radnor Studio 21. Last year, Frechie earned a Telly award for the three-minute film “Seated Tap Dance,” a film about her mom, Ruth Pillet, teaching senior citizens who suffer from ambulatory problems how to tap dance while seated at the PALM Center for seniors in Ardmore. Frechie and Ricciutti also received a Telly for “Rescue at Cau Song Be,” a candid interview with a Vietnam veteran.
Ricciutti is a Radnor Studio 21 board member and made a name for himself there as a producer, doing many on-air interviews and producing content. In addition to earning the Telly Award with Frechie on the documentary that they co-produced about a decorated Jewish-American Vietnam War helicopter pilot, he also won an Emmy and two Telly Awards for a documentary that he co-produced titled “SEPTA in Motion.” A longtime employee of SEPTA, Ricciutti, owner of Thistle Dew Productions, recently partnered as a producer with Shawn Swords and others at Irish American Films to make “Remembering the 27 Crusaders,” the acclaimed documentary focusing on the 27 graduates of Father Judge High School in Northeast Philadelphia who lost their lives in the Vietnam war. The tragic number marked more than any other still-in-existence private or parochial school in the country. The film is getting rave reviews and is currently having screenings throughout the Philadelphia area.
Hoping to attract sponsors for “Kensington in Crisis,” once the release date is set and the independent film is ready for promotion and distribution, Frechie and Ricciutti have been working on the project, thus far, with little support, coupled with a strong desire to bring about change through sharing the story.
“We wish that we could rewrite the story to give our film a happy ending, but unfortunately the film is based on pure reality,” Frechie stated.
The filmmakers credit Allan Schear, the dean of the film department at Montgomery County Community College, as their mentor during the project, giving then advice and tips on how to film, edit and more.
Both Frechie and Ricciutti seem to be pouring their hearts into the “Kensington in Crisis” project, walking the thin line between professionalism and becoming emotionally involved, their hearts touched by the wretched scenes there. Friends often wonder why the filmmakers continue to return to the area, week after week, its streets riddled with used needles, lost souls and rampant crime. Ricciutti has hired a bodyguard at times to accompany them when filming at night.
“There is an allure about the Kensington area,” Frechie explained. “There’s something about the place that strikes you and we were definitely struck. Kensington, was once a blue-collar factory neighborhood where people came to shop before the concept of the mall, where my grandfather once owned a cigar store. It changed in the 1950s when industries closed and residents moved to the suburbs because jobs grew scarce. Now people are literally trapped in their homes with drug addicts shooting up on their steps. Children often have to walk around needles and addicts lying on the ground on their way to school. It is heartbreaking.”
Ricciutti nodded his head in agreement.
“We want our film to show the horror of what’s going on there,” he said. “Jill and I want people to pay attention. We hope ’Kensington in Crisis’ will change people’s attitudes toward addiction and mental illness. There’s no urgency for us to rush to get this film done and release it. We are taking our time because we want to get this important story right.”
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