Announcing the winners of the #MoreThan video contest

INPUD and Drugreporter are excited to announce the five winners of our #Morethan video contest!

The contest, which launched in September, is intended to be a continuation of the #MoreThan campaign launched on 2021 International Drug Users Remembrance Day, highlighting that people who use drugs are more than the sum of all labels attached to us by broader society. The contest was supported through the Robert Carr Fund for Civil Society Networks.

In total we received an incredible 22 submissions from 17 countries. It was not easy to select five winners among all of these fantastic videos, which highlighted some incredible human stories as told by members of the community. An independent board of five community activists were asked to rate the videos according to: eligibility, appropriateness, relevance, message and quality.

Below please find the five winners with links to view their videos on YouTube. Congratulations to all the winners!

1st Prize: Delirium a choice
Directed by Sania Zehra & Aisha Kasiri, Pakistan

This short film is based on the life events of a woman who by profession is a nurse, portraying her struggles during the pandemic and how isolated she became even among family and friends due to the negative connotation attached to drug use. The fact that she was juggling her responsibilities of home and work life were simply negated because of her inclination towards drug use as a way to cope with daily challenges of life and the havoc that COVID-19 pandemic brought on her mental health.

2nd Prize: 6 Women, 1 Seed
Directed by Larissa Lewandovski, Portugal

This documentary features violence against women who use drugs and sex workers. The documentary was made as part of the campaign against violence on women using drugs (WUD) launched by WHRIN and EuroNPUD – SisterWUD. Since then, a new group, GAMEM (Peer support group among women experiencing violence) has been created, representing WUD, including migrants, sex workers, homeless women and non-binary people. GAMEM has a weekly meeting at a safe space provided by a cultural association, Sirigaita, at a neighbourhood where drugs, sex work and tourism coexist in Lisbon.

3rd Prize: Living With Stigma
Directed by Dhojo Wahengbam, India

This is a short documentary film about a person who use drugs in Manipur, India, narrating his personal real life experience.

4th Prize: Confession
Directed by Tengku Raka, Indonesia

This short documentary video is about stigma and discrimination experienced by woman who use drugs. We meet a mother and daughter, who both suffered the consequences of Draconian drug laws and mass incarceration from different perspectives.

5th Prize: Should I say that I use other drugs?
Directed by Raúl Lescano Méndez and Dana Bonilla

This short film, based on Carl Hart’s essay ‘Get Out of the Closet: Stop Behaving Like Children’, calls on drug users to use self-examination and the power of their own voice as an urgent step to fight the stigmata related to drug use. Instead of waiting for the world to change, it might be time for ourselves to start changing.