On Sunday, Park City witnessed another captivating premiere with "Union County," a drama directed by Adam Meeks, which garnered a lengthy standing ovation following its screening at the Eccles Theater. The film, starring Will Poulter and Noah Centineo as brothers who embark on a journey of drug recovery together, was shot in a real-life drug court in Ohio. Many of their co-stars were non-actors who were working in the program itself.
The Sundance Film Festival crowd erupted into their biggest cheers for Annette Deao, who plays a therapist helping individuals navigate the complexities of addiction recovery in real life. Deao shares several emotional moments with Poulter, which left the audience mesmerized.
During the Q&A session following the screening, Meeks shared how he became interested in the project. "I'm from central Ohio, the area where this film is set, but my immediate family and I left when I was 6," he said. "It wasn't until 2016 that I started spending a lot of time there as an adult. My grandmother was sick, and I came back to spend time there. And I think it was because I had been away for so long that I was falling in love with Ohio and seeing the place differently and seeing people differently. Around the same time, my extended family was telling me about the way that the opioid epidemic at that time was impacting friends and loved ones."
Meeks continued, "It was intense, and my uncle actually introduced me to the drug court judge at the time, the previous judge, and he invited me to sit in on a meeting. I had been hearing about what I think most of us were hearing about, in terms of the bleakness and tragedy of the overdose statistics. But I was immediately seeing people getting better and getting back on their feet, and I was also seeing the incredible work that Annette and her team and everybody were doing."
Prior to the screening, Meeks spoke to Variety on the red carpet about how Poulter got involved with the project. "He actually read the script through his agent and reached out to us," Meeks said. "I got on a Zoom with him and fell in love immediately. We did the kind of coy thing at the end of a call where you're like, 'Alright, I'll talk to my people, and you talk to your people.' And then five minutes later, we had offered him the role, and he had accepted it. It was just a really organic, beautiful, mutual connection."
Deao also spoke to Variety on the carpet about how abuse of opioids is evolving in the Midwest. "I believe the opioid epidemic is changing," Deao said. "Part of that is due to education. People are understanding - even our medical professionals understand much better - that you cannot keep prescribing that and expect people not to get addicted. We are seeing improvement. Also, medication-assisted treatment has been an amazing part of how people are recovering from substance use disorder."
