Using Film As An Outlet For Addiction Recovery

Long Islander News photo/Janee Law
Peter Scheer’s latest short film, “Broken Lines,” tells the true story of overcoming drug addiction and transcendence.

By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com

Peter Scheer, of Dix Hills, will be screening his latest short film, “Broken Lines,” for the first time Tuesday, at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington. The film is intended to raise awareness of the recovery aspect of drug addiction.

“Addiction has a negative stigma in that you don’t hear a story of success and recovery,” Scheer, 73, said. “It’s infrequent and I think this will be somewhat inspiring. The aim is to educate people, bring the subject to people’s attention.”

The 35-minute film is based on a true story, depicting the life experience of Scheer’s close friend, Austin Guerra. The story focuses on a young man’s journey overcoming addiction, surviving a car accident and transcending his life from “Devil to Angel,” Scheer said.

“There are people who will be in this audience who perhaps have a child, friend or relative that has overdosed; people who are struggling with the addiction of somebody who is still alive; or themselves,” Scheer said. “I just hope it reaches people to envision a sense of hope because he’s [Guerra] a living example.”

Scheer said the film took five years when he began in the fall of 2012 and officially completed this past spring, Scheer said. He added that the title, “Broken Lines,” is more universal than about Guerra.

“It’s about people who break that line in their life,” Scheer said. “To me, ‘Broken Lines’ is when we go along our path in life and something breaks, something happens that takes you off the path, and how you recover and what is the state of that recovery in life.”

Five years after his recovery, Guerra, of New Jersey, graduated with a master’s degree in psychology from Seton Hall University and just got accepted at Palo Alto University on a research grant to pursue a doctorate degree, Scheer said.

“It’s a remarkable story and this was an opportunity to tell a story that was dramatic and interesting and important,” he added.

Scheer is self-taught in the film industry and made his first film about autism when he was 25 years old. He has done corporate and commercial work but said that his true passion lies in documentaries and the art of film.

“I think film is a very powerful communication device, that help inspire, inform and move people,” Scheer said. “I consider myself the messenger so for me it’s about taking something raw, forming it into something and then presenting it to people that can assimilate it and learn from it.”

Moving forward, Scheer hopes to make several copies of “Broken Lines” to have it shown in schools, universities and drug and alcohol addiction centers.

The screening at the Cinema Arts Centre (423 Park Ave., Huntington) will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 8. Tickets are $11 for members and $16 for the public. There will also be a reception and question and answer portion with Scheer; Guerra; and Anthony Rizzuto, founder and executive director of Families in Support of Treatment.