quotes & reviews
“Cautionary...disturbing...remarkable
candor. [director] Jay Corcoran has never shied away from...painful
and politically touchy aspects of gay male sexuality.”
Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Raw, intimate and often deeply unsettling, ROCK BOTTOM offers more
than just an exposé of the ongoing crystal meth crisis within
gay communities in the US. Working closely with seven gay men who
have been struggling with meth addiction in different ways, Jay
Corcoran has produced a groundbreaking work that reveals the multiple
and complex layers of personal and collective trauma which haunt
contemporary gay male identity: loss, survival, guilt, fear, depression
and addiction. This powerful documentary provokes many urgent and
important questions about how to support and sustain gay men's health
at the beginning of the 21st century. ROCK BOTTOM needs to be seen,
but above it all, it demands to be discussed.
Roger Hallas, Assistant Professor, SYRACUSE
UNIVERSITY. Author of Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness and
the Queer Moving Image (forthcoming)
If you are looking for a romanticized view of drugs and sexuality,
this is not a film for you. ROCK BOTTOM is deeply disturbing, highly
provocative, and intensely realistic. At times, I found it difficult
to watch. But crystal methedrine addiction is a national health
crisis, and its relationship to sexuality is mostly ignored. Given
that, this is, in my view, one of the most important recent documentary
films on HIV/AIDS. I consider it a must-see.
Tom Shevory, Author of "Notorious HIV:
The Media Spectacle of Nushawn Williams" and Professor of Politics,
ITHACA COLLEGE
Told with a brutal but loving honesty by men who use crystal, and
by a documentary that does not judge them, ROCK BOTTOM makes a much
needed intervention into AIDS video and education by subtly drawing
the tough links between HIV and crystal meth in the American gay
male community.
Alexandra Juhasz, Professor of Media and Cultural
Studies, PITZER COLLEGE
"ROCK BOTTOM is an essential
tool for understanding methamphetamine addiction. Unlike conventional
textbooks and lectures, ROCK BOTTOM offers a rare look into the
private world of the meth addict. It shows the irresistable pleasure
of meth use, as well as the devastating consequences that line the
path to meth addiction. Few learning tools are able to teach an
understanding of the addicts experience as this film. In addition,
the film uses these first-hand illustrations as focal points to
discuss the fundamentals necessary to treat meth addiction, such
as: how meth is used and how it works in the body; the importance
of settings, such as sexual intercourse, and how these settings
become triggers that pull people back into meth use; and meth's
relationship to HIV. ROCK BOTTOM is an excellent learning tool for
a broad range of people, from meth addicts, to people contemplating
using meth, to clinicians who treat people that are addicted to
the drug."
Steven J. Lee, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor
of Psychiatry, Columbia Unversity
“ROCK BOTTOM : GAY MEN AND METH”
Jay Corcoran’s film is an eye-opening and gut-wrenching documentary
about various gay guys in New York battling their addictions to
Crystal Meth. Watching these men engage in dangerous behavior—sexually,
emotionally, and physically—is certainly depressing, but it
shows viewers just how insidious this drug is. Corcoran’s
unflinching portrait of men addicted to meth is a brave testament
to how difficult addiction and recovery is—a message that
obviously bears repeating. Even the men in this film who know what
it means to struggle and survive remain on a slippery slope of recovery.
“ROCK BOTTOM” is quite revealing, and as painful as
it is, it is also necessary viewing."
Gary Kramer, Philadelphia Gay News
“Terrific”
BAY AREA REPORTER
“Too alarming to be ignored”
PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER
“A testament to how difficult addiction
and recovery is, a message that bears repeating”
PHILADELPIA GAY NEWS
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Rock
Bottom - Gay Men & Meth