By Virginia Schneider
Los Angeles, CA, (The Hollywood Times) 2/28/2025 – Writer, director and cinematographer Glen Fulthorpe has created a unique, mesmerizing and heartfelt take on the difficult subject of addiction. Fulthorpe’s viewpoint is painful indeed, he chronicles his father’s alcohol and opioid addiction and eventual death and the lasting impact it has had on himself as a father. For anyone who grew up with a loved one suffering with addiction it is hard to explain the lasting effects, particularly as our life is molded by events we only later understand are unhealthy and sometimes even deformative. The unraveling of our feelings, our pain and our compassion for our loved one(s), combined with the unanswered questions and things unsaid, sit with us forever.
Fulthorpe shares how the turning point for him was when he had an encounter with two people who were introduced to substance abuse by his father and the impact it continues to have on their lives. Connecting the relationship with his father’s overdose and death from addiction, his story unfolds. Fulthorpe is unsentimental yet emotional and kind as he talks about his own family. With candid interviews and compassionate storytelling, we are drawn into Fulthorpe’s determination to address past issues and reconcile history with the future. Desiring to be a good father to his own children and make peace with those his father associated with, he shows us by his own example how we may free ourselves and renew our determination to help others.
Fulthorpe has done a great service to the world with his kind, honest and patient unravelling of his story with Hooked. Combining archival footage, still photos and current photography interwoven with interviews and personal reflections, we learn from Fulthorpe to ‘look back in order to move forward,’ a painful and difficult journey of release and forgiveness.
Fulthorpe received the Best New Screenplay Award at the 2011 Newport International Film Festival. Domantas Jakubauskas provides gifted craftsmanship as cinemaphotographer, sound and co-producer. Bettina Zironi is the masterful editor; Carrie Penn composes artful music. Tom Moss provides stirring sound design.
This is a study all families dealing with substance abuse could learn from. It can be hoped that this film will be received on many platforms as a marvelous tool in substance abuse organizations.
For more information:
glenfulthorpe@icloud.com Instagram: @rockdoveglen
