Fishers filmmaker returning home to honor late sister
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA filmmaker from Fishers is coming back home from LA to make a short film about his sister’s battle with addiction, which ultimately took her life.
Vince Dixon hopes it will be a conversation starter about addiction, and one of the first conversations will take place at the Community Fairbanks Recovery Center, which will screen the film and host a discussion about loving someone who’s battling addiction.
“Her smile and her laugh were just like, unmistakable,” Dixon said. “She can just light up the room, always life of the party for better for worse.”
Lauren Dixon told her brother life always just seemed easier for him. But they both suffered a tragic loss when their mother battled cancer and later committed suicide when the siblings were teenagers.
“Around the time that our mom died by suicide, she started to get into more harder drugs, dropped out of high school. It was just really hard for her to deal with all that and just deal with the hand she was dealt, I guess.”
Lauren died from an overdose when she was 26 years old. Just days before her death, Vince wrote a letter to her but never sent it. He turned that letter into a script that he said encapsulates the negative feelings of anger, grief, guilt and resentment, but also features his hope of how to remember his sister.
“Taking words from his letter, the short film is called “Sometimes I Imagine Your Funeral.” Set to film in late May in Fishers, the crew will be a mix of LA and indie filmmakers and feature Indiana actors. Vince works at Paramount Plus in LA but says filming in his hometown is more authentic”
“It feels definitely more genuine, and also I know that the Indiana community is amongst some of the hardest hit with drug use and overdose,” he said. “So all of those kind of combined [to] point me to this is the right move. Filming in Indiana is what we have to do.”
A screening of “Sometimes I Imagine Your Funeral” is scheduled for Sept. 21 at 1 p.m. at Butler University’s Schrott Center for the Arts. The short film will be followed by a panel discussion with Community Fairbanks Recovery Center.
The film focuses on what it feels like to love someone battling addiction and how to support them.
“When I was trying to help Lauren, I had no idea what I was doing,” Dixons aid. “I’m embarrassed to admit it was after she passed away that I was looking up how I could help a loved one going through addiction. I didn’t understand what to do and what I shouldn’t do.”
Dixon hopes the film helps audiences open up about addiction. He hid Lauren’s from his friends, but wishes he hadn’t.
“I really do hope that this film can shine a light on that and just let people know that they’re not alone, that other people are going through this, and there are ways and resources that they can get help.”
Vince has raised almost $15,000 on his crowdfunding site to pay for the project and needs at least $5,000 more with the deadline in about two weeks. He’s looking for businesses to help reach his fundraising goal.
“This is a community made film, and that doesn’t just mean individuals. We’re really hoping to use this as a way that a company could get involved and put their name behind the project and help spread this important message.”