Sean Dunne’s ‘Oxyana’

Now we first became aware of Sean Dunne back in October of last year when Ed Paginton

stumbled across his brilliant American Juggalo

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documentary. Having been suitably blown away by Ed’s discovery I felt compelled to chase Sean up for an interview the following month in which we talked at length about his work and really got a good feel for what makes him tick. Ever since we saw American Juggalo it was pretty much an unwritten rule that we would be keeping an eye out for what Sean served up next, so it was pretty damn exciting when we found out about his new project Oxyana.

The feature-length documentary is set to delve into a world torn apart by prescription drug addiction as it explores the picturesque but roundly fucked town of Oceana, West Virginia.

Unlike with his previous projects Sean is turning to the revolutionary Kickstarter

as a means of funding the project and we here at KLLKT will be backing this as best as we can and would like to extend the invitation to help fund the project to you our readers. Now we know you’re not all made of money but rather than just relying on the old (nevertheless very true) adage “every little helps”, we thought it better to have another chat with Sean about the project so that we all have a far richer understanding of what we will be helping to make.

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KLLKT: How did your discovery of the prescription pill epidemic in Oceana come about? Did you visit after hearing about this or was it (for want of a better word) serendipitous?

Sean Dunne: My father got hooked on prescription drugs when I was a kid. Here was an honest, hard-working guy who saw his life slowly spiral out of control because of drugs that were prescribed to him by a doctor. It was really scary and also made me really aware of how quickly these drugs could take control of someone’s life. He is 5 years sober now because of the help that was available to him in our community.  So it’s an issue that I was all too familiar with.

At the beginning of the year I was touring with my friend Jonny Corndawg. During our drive from Virginia to Nashville we stopped in Oceana for the night. Jonny had spent some time ATVing there when he was growing up so he knew the area. When we arrived we met some people and they started to tell us a little about what was going on there and how bad things had gotten with the prescription drug problem. The next day we met a few more people and they told us more of the same. They told us that the town had become overtaken by Oxycontin. It was alarming. I went back a couple months later to dig around a little more. The more we dug, the worse we realized it was. It was alarming. At that point we decided to try and make a film about what’s going on there.

K: What about the situation there are you looking to discover and communicate through the Oxyana documentary project?

SD: The problem there is very complex. There is no cut and dry answer or solution to this issue. One thing has been clear though, that these people have never had a voice. They’ve seen their once thriving community get swallowed up by this epidemic and it’s getting worse. The goal with a project like this is to get these stories out there and hopefully spark some sort of rational dialogue about this problem. It’s not going away, it’s only getting worse. I think getting these stories heard is the first step towards getting some help for the people down there who badly need it.

K: Is there a slight similarity here with American Juggalo in that you are looking to give a voice to a community that America for the most part is detached from?

SD: Absolutely, there are a ton of similarities. In a way this is like a sequel to American Juggalo. This is what life for many of those people is like when they return home to their small towns. This is a growing segment of America that most would rather ignore. Its extreme poverty coupled with drug abuse and all the shit that results from that combination. Oxyana is our attempt at getting these stories heard so people know what’s going on.

K: Like many film makers you are looking to secure funding for the production through Kickstarter, what do you feel the reasons are for how successful sites like this are becoming for film makers?

SD: For me it was something I always avoided with my other projects. I felt that I would rather go into debt funding my films myself than have to sit there and explain my project and offer tacky rewards. But my feelings have since evolved. I think it’s a great resource for people that have no other way to get their projects funded. It’s cutting out the middle man and going dealing directly with your audience. Oxyana is a project that I probably could have gotten funded if I wanted to go the traditional route. But then we would have to answer to some studio and ultimately I couldn’t make the film I set out to make. For that reason alone I’m all about it.

K: With a couple of weeks to go before the funding deadline strikes, if you recoup the required $50, 000 when do you plan on starting the project?

SD: We’ve already started. I just got back from shooting the first week. It changed my life. There is no way I could have prepared myself mentally for the things we saw while we were there. It’s a desperate situation, worse than I expected.

We still need to go back for 3 or 4 more weeks, that’s why we need this money. If everything goes according to plan we’ll be putting the film out early next year.

To help get Oxyana made or to merely take at the funding drive’s progress (although we clearly encourage the former) head to the project’s Kickstarter page here

. While if you still need more convincing, a rummage through Sean’s vimeo will leave you under no illusions to what a fine film maker he is. Keep tabs on us here at KLLKT for more news on the project as it unfolds.