On Demand Weekly

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN

By T. Tara Turk

Rarely do I watch a documentary that has me fearful if no one else ever watches it. Eugene Jarecki’s documentary THE HOUSE I LIVE IN, about the war on drugs, has me afraid that all of its facts, wisdom, heartbreaking true stories and amazing ability to tie in such a large epidemic, has me fearful that it is all for nothing if everyone doesn’t watch it.

Eugene Jarecki, THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (FilmBuff)

Jarecki starts off on a small scale by talking to his family’s longtime housekeeper, Nanny (that’s her name), about what happened to her children and other close knit family members during the 1970s and 80s drug epidemic as the young Jareckis were close to them but time had drifted them apart. Thus begins the incredible tale of the nation’s real war on drugs, the perceived war on drugs and the dive into Jareckii discovering that the penitentiary system is slowly becoming the the stimulus package for small and average size towns in a destabilized economy.

Nanny’s kids and relatives are mostly all either dead from drugs or in jail. Jarecki also finds several young black males who are in the similar situations, victims of an intense drug sentencing system that appears solve no problems but manages to create larger prisons. Jarecki interviews victims of the drug epidemic - from ex-con fathers who had no fathers, activists who’s families have been given near life sentences, academics who can’t prevent the epidemic from reaching their own families, correctional officers who see no way out of the vicious cycle, cynical and exhausted narcotic officers and judges who are tired of heaping all the blame on a small part of the disenfranchised population.

In a careful and effective balance, Jarecki is able to personalize the effects of the war drugs with real life stories (one ex-con father says of his son, “I knew I was supposed to be a father and have that responsibility but I didn’t know how to do it. I just didn’t know how to do it...”) with mind boggling facticians and academics who present such a remarkable case for a review of drug sentencing laws and the culture of rehabilitation that it’s hard to imagine walking away from this documentary without needing to do some action.