DIRECTORS STATEMENT

Once upon a time, I was a detective in a mid-sized city. After years of working with victims of horrendous crimes, and the offenders who commit them, I learned a few things: life is short and can change in an instant; the systems designed to protect us often fail; and the truth rarely presents itself in black and white. About a Fix was born directly from my experiences in law enforcement. Of the countless cases that shaped me, two in particular became the emotional spine of this story.

The first involved an older woman who described being trafficked by her husband across Colorado for years. She was taken to motel after motel with her two school-aged children in tow. She did everything she could to shield them, often at the expense of her own wellbeing, only intensifying the trauma she endured. She had reported the abuse repeatedly to police and social services, but nothing ever came of it.

The reasons were predictable: not enough evidence, too much time passed, or simply not believing her; especially given the signs of mental illness she displayed, which, ironically, were likely born from the trauma no one would acknowledge. Eventually, she escaped the relationship and pieced together what life she could. Her story was largely invisible.

The second came years later. A young woman on trial for robbery and assault admitted to being addicted and prostituted. She had helped lure a client to be beaten and robbed by her pimp. Everyone, myself included, told her the same thing: name him, and the case would shift focus. She refused. Not out of fear, but out of something more complex: guilt. A kind of warped accountability. She told me she’d rather go to prison and use that time to rebuild her life, clean from drugs and away from sex work, than name the person she felt she had enabled for so long.

These stories stuck with me; not because of the crimes committed, but because of the unimaginable strength it took to survive them. Both women made heartbreaking decisions in pursuit of something resembling peace. Both illustrate the ways trauma shapes survival, and how sometimes the only way forward is through self-sacrifice. About a Fix exists to honor people like them. People whose stories are messy, painful, and rarely told. This film is for them, and for all of us who’ve ever tried to crawl our way out of something no one else could see. -BENJAMIN HESS