Joanna Rudnick: Brother

2021 Filmmaker In Residence

In an attempt to understand her brother’s opioid use disorder, a filmmaker chronicles their phone conversations in which she hears her brother talk openly and honestly about the disease that threatens to take him away from her. The resulting short, animated documentary takes the audience inside the filmmaker’s intimate phone calls with her brother during his fragile recovery from opioid addiction. Their nonlinear conversation paints a detailed, uncensored picture of one person’s story of addiction—tracing his struggles back to the pain of a debilitating childhood learning disability followed by years lived on the hamster wheel of relapse and recovery under the stigmatizing shadow of the disease.

Both intensely personal and increasingly universal, Brother explores the individual toll and psychological origins of a descent into opioid use disorder and the tenacity necessary to break free and survive it. While the rehabilitation system doesn’t always make the distinction, there is a difference between surviving and thriving. Will her brother be given the tools for either? Together, the siblings address the human, familial, and personal toll of opioid addiction, while dispelling some of the most damaging tropes of addiction narratives and the disease of opioid use disorder.

Joanna Rudnick is an Emmy-nominated documentary director and producer. In her directorial debut IN THE FAMILY (POV|PBS), she told her personal story about coming to terms with learning that she had a BRCA1 mutation, dramatically increasing her risk for breast and ovarian cancer. The film was the first to cover the world of predictive genetic testing via a verité́ treatment and was screened as part of the successful effort to pass the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) as well as challenge gene patenting, a case that went to the Supreme Court. Ms. Rudnick’s directing credits include the duPont Award winning HARD EARNED (Al Jazeera America) and ON BEAUTY (Audience Award Best short, Chicago Film Festival). Her producing credits include: BILL T. JONES: A GOOD MAN (American Masters|PBS); CROSSFIRE HURRICANE, a documentary about the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones (HBO); and ROBERT CAPA IN LOVE AND WAR (PBS|BBC), among others.