INHERITANCE
INHERITANCE explores the underlying causes of the opioid epidemic in America through the life of one boy and five generations of his extended family over 11 years. Curtis, a bright and hopeful 12 year-old, grows up surrounded by love and struggle while every adult in his family – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins – battle addiction. Curtis’s America is a country where people and communities are struggling with an epidemic of substance use disorder, joblessness, poverty, and a deteriorating sense of belonging.
MATT MOYER, PRODUCER • DIRECTOR • CINEMATOGRAPHER
Matt Moyer is a photographer and filmmaker dedicated to telling stories that raise awareness and work to improve our world. Matt covered 9/11 in NYC, the Iraq war for The New York Times, and has photographed multiple feature stories for National Geographic magazine. As a National Geographic Explorer, Matt has photographed the looming water crisis in Egypt. He has directed short documentaries that have been featured by a number of outlets including the National Geographic Society and PBS. Matt was named a Knight Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2008 and also received a Knight Fellowship at Ohio University in 2012. He teaches regularly for National Geographic Photo Camps, an organization that teaches photography to underserved youth throughout the world. Matt also sits on the Board of Advisors for The Siena School, a school for students with language-based learning differences, headquartered in Washington, DC.
AMY TOENSING, PRODUCER • DIRECTOR
Amy Toensing is a visual journalist committed to telling stories with sensitivity and depth. A regular contributor to National Geographic magazine for over twenty years, Toensing has photographed and reported on cultures and topics around the world, including indigenous communities and their connection to land, the impact of drought on communities in Australia and land and social rights for women in Uganda and India. Her recent projects have centered around the human relationship to conservation efforts in the United States including a rewilding project in Montana and The Northern Forest Canoe Trail, a 740 mile protected paddling path that runs from New York to Maine. Toensing has also co-directed two short documentary films, one about urban refugee children in Nairobi and the other on women’s land rights in Uganda. In 2018 Toensing was named the Mike Wallace Fellow in Investigative Reporting at University of Michigan. She is currently a National Geographic Explorer, and FUJIFILM Creator.
The film began in 2012 without us knowing it. Matt took time away from his successful career in photojournalism to study filmmaking as a Knight Fellow at Ohio University. While filming food distribution at a church, he was approached by J.P. – a key character in INHERITANCE – eager to tell his story. After listening to J.P. talk about his heroin addiction, trauma, prison, and a search for redemption, Matt made a short film telling his story. Amy was the second camera on the project.
We found ourselves on the frontlines of the opioid crisis in America.
As we spent time with J.P., his family, and his community, we realized the issue was far more complex than the devastation wrought by one drug. Here was a troubled America, one where communities that bore the brunt of economic decline now faced inherited poverty, joblessness, abuse, addiction, and hopelessness. At the core, it seemed, was a cycle of intergenerational trauma and mental health problems underlying America’s substance use disorder crisis.
In 2016, we met J.P.’s 12-year-old cousin Curtis – bright, captivating, and hopeful in a family where every adult battled addiction. His six-year journey to adulthood became ours as filmmakers, to let viewers ask themselves: What if I were Curtis? Could I forge a path different from my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, – and cousins like J.P.? Is it realistic, let alone fair, to expect a kid like Curtis to “pull themselves up by the bootstraps?”
We kept our focus on Curtis’ story, with a belief that audiences would view him as representative of millions of kids in America. We interviewed a local police officer who has known his family for 30 years and he estimated that Curtis’s situation represents up to 30% of all kids in the region. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that about one out of every eight kids in America grows up in homes with a substance use problem. INHERITANCE does not suggest policy changes but we passionately believe that empathy and understanding are the first spark toward change.
The deeper we delved into this story, the more we began to look at the impact substance use disorder has had on our own family histories. Although Curtis has faced many more difficult struggles than we ever did, we felt a deepening connection with him and his family, and a belief that audiences could be led to feel the same connection, empathy, and hope toward Curtis.