Written & Directed by Eleanor Lanahan and Orly Yadin. 40 mins. 2011
How did Alcoholics Anonymous begin? What influences shaped it into the worldwide, support-focused organization it is today? And what goes on inside a typical AA meeting? This film follows a quest for answers undertaken by two filmmakers—Orly Yadin, an Israeli-born documentarian and archival film specialist who questions the idea of genetic alcoholism, and Eleanor Lanahan, an animator whose family tree suggests a different perspective (she’s the granddaughter of F. Scott Fitzgerald). Their search leads them to the Vermont roots of AA’s founders, the structural parallels between AA meetings and civic gatherings, temperance movements predating AA, and more. At the heart of the film, however, are segments that take viewers inside a real AA meeting. With animated faces disguising the live-action participants, these scenes offer a poignant window into the confrontation of addiction.