Jamie Boyle first got the idea for her new documentary Anonymous Sister in 2009. But to fully flesh out the sobering story about the toll that prescription opioids took on her family, she used 30 years of her family’s own home videos, going back to her childhood in the early 1990s. Anonymous Sister follows Boyle’s sister, Jordan Hogan, and their mother, Julie Boyle, on a harrowing journey through prescription opioid addiction. It begins with Jordan, in her late teens, experiencing chronic pain from injuries sustained through years of competitive figure skating. After doctors prescribe her and her mother OxyContin, they fall into a years-long journey through horrible pain that can’t be alleviated, and prescription dosages that get higher and higher and never seem to run out. In the end, they have a choice: Get off the medication, or risk their lives to stay on it. The sense of desperation is juxtaposed with happy memories of skating success and two young sisters frolicking in the sun.
Stream the documentary here:
Follow us on Twitter