*IMPORTANT*

Due to circumstances beyond MIFF's control, *_High or Dry_* will not be screening at the festival. See daily schedule changes for replacement films.

High or Dry, depicting middle-class heroin-user Mark, is one of the best and most arresting documentary debuts seen in this country in decades.

Mark is a magnetic, all-consuming presence who affects everyone around him, but, as the film unflinchingly observes, his self-destructive addiction threatens everything he holds close. Director Brodie Higgs' documentary has a remarkable intimacy with Mark and his coterie of friends, but never to its detriment, instead presenting their lives with a perceptive and open mind. Whether Mark and his friends are finding a way to escape their problems or confront them, or are finding a way to get clean or get on, Higgs has captured these parts of their lives with considerable sensitivity. At times tragic, at times hilarious, this virtuoso piece of documentary filmmaking doesn't pass judgement, instead preferring, in the best tradition of verite filmmaking, to let its audience take it all in and contemplate.

High or Dry is perhaps the most intriguing and honest Australian portrayal of the spiral of drug addiction since Monkey Grip.

Contains scenes that may offend some viewers

Brodie Higgs will be attending the festival.