‘Jacinta’ Should Shake Up What People Think They Know About Addiction

LISTEN – IN AN ALTERNATIVE USA UNIVERSE –

Oct. 2, 2021 – When the movie opens, Jacinta is 26 years old and serving time in a state prison in Maine for drug use and possession. It turns out that her mother is in the same prison on similar charges. Jacinta has been in prison most of her life since she was 16; her mother has been there more times and longer than her daughter. They’re exceptionally close emotionally, even though they’ve spent most of their lives locked away from each other, and what’s made them close is not necessarily ideal mother-daughter experiences.

Jacinta tells about her mother making her beat up another girl when she was young. Jacinta’s story may make you wonder about these two, but as this remarkably intimate film shows, Jacinta and her mother are not to be scorned or written off. They’ve both been born into horrendous lives.

Director Jessica Earnshaw follows Jacinta, her mother, her family and the daughter she rarely sees over several years. Jacinta gets out of prison, the Maine Correctional Center. She goes to live in a group home called Sober House. Her sobriety doesn’t last, and she’s on camera as she drives along looking for drugs while talking to filmmaker Earnshaw.