Director's Statement

Falling in love is easy. It's staying in love that can be complicated. As we crash our lives into another's we take on their successes and their challenges. Some challenges might prove tougher than others, but it takes true courage to stand by your partner in the face of real darkness. We face an ever-growing opioid crisis in the United States, as well as an abysmal approach to mental health. So many are left to slip through the system and take matters into their own hands. But what about the loved ones of those people? The ones who choose to stay and fight for them, each day, as they try to fight through their demons. There is a common trope in storytelling, the zoom in on the darkness and hopelessness of these stories. "Addiction is deadly, Addiction destroys all it touches." But, there is another side to addiction that most people don't see. Hope. The hope to overcome, the hope to find your way back. Heroin(e) in Love is an honest love story at its core. A relationship that has hit a wall, but not one it hasn't hit before and most likely, will be one they face again. This is a story about a relationship that wants to survive, despite its challenges. Call me an optimist or even an idealist, but I really believe that in the darkest parts of ourselves, what makes us human, is our ability to find hope, as difficult as it may be, we are drawn to the light. And it's that journey to the light that I am the most interested to explore in this film.

Wes McGee is an actor-writer-seeker currently in Atlanta. His recent credits include Sound of Violence which had its world premiere at SXSW. Other notable credits include a recurring role on the mini-series Shots Fired and supporting roles in The Follower with Erica Christiansen and a lead role in the now-playing film Trapped Model. He spends a large portion of his creative life on the theatre stage, and has acted in several Ovation Award-nominated plays including IAMA’s A Dog’s House and The Blank Theatre's world premiere of A Singular They.

Sara Garth is a cinematographer based out of Los Angeles. 

​She received her bachelors degree in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Chicago and has since been working in New York and Los Angeles. Sara has experience in narrative, commercial, music video and documentary content. Her work has screened and been televised worldwide and at film festivals including Tribeca and Cannes.

Producer - Kelly Bumford

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Kelly Bumford is a Los Angeles based Producer and member of the Producers Guild of America. She has credits with major networks like NBC, FOX, MTV, Bravo, E!, VH1, Comedy Central, and more. Her work has taken her to 20 states and 6 countries.

She worked on the Emmy-winning TV series hitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Season 1), and continued to work with hitRECord as a Producer for their 2016 project in conjunction with the ACLU (which garnered an Emmy nomination). She spent a year on staff as a Line Producer with Popsugar Studios - working on digital content, short documentaries, and Television series.

In 2018, she incorporated and formed Warrior Woman Productions, Inc. Her company has produced the neo-noir RomCom short film Washland Express (which played at HollyShorts, Dances with Films, Short of the Week), and Heroin(e) In Love (written by Danielle Thorpe, directed by Stefanie Black).

She co-produced the indie feature Darkness in Tenement 45 (Dir. Nicole Groton) now viewable VOD on Amazon & iTunes, and more. She then added the feature film All About Sex from writer/director Dakota Gorman as her company’s feature debut. 

She is currently in development to produce Groton's follow up feature Hurricane Hennley and line producing Hulu's The Next Think You Eat with David Chang.

Editor - Diana Fishman

Diana Fishman started her career working in unscripted television and assisting on small independent features. She then transitioned to editing scripted television with a focus on dark and grounded comedy. Diana’s most recent television projects include South Side (Comedy Central), Sherman’s Showcase (IFC), Hot Date (PopTv/Netflix), and Mother Mary (CBS Studios Rachel Bloom pilot). Diana’s most recent short film, Honeymoon, written and directed by Amy Aniobi, won the Starz/Lionsgate Short Film award at the BlackStar Film Festival in 2020 and was featured at the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase in 2021. Diana is on the women’s steering committee of the Motion Pictures Editors Guild. 

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Leanna Primiani is an award-winning composer and conductor. Her musical voice is unique and wide-ranging featuring works for orchestra, band, chamber ensemble, solo instruments, chorus and solo voice, film, multimedia, and sound installation. Primiani’s numerous commissions and awards include: the national “Audience Favorite” Award of the RAPIDO Chamber Music Competition; the ACCBDA Emerging Composers grant; Vox Musica’s 1st Prize Award; and being twice-named the recipient of the highly coveted USC Leonard Bernstein Music Scholar Award and the USC Arts Grant. A native of Southern California, Primiani currently lives in Santa Monica. She is a trained flutist and a DMA composition graduate of the University of Southern California (USC) Thornton School of Music.

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Cast & Crew

Composer - Leanna Primiani

The Team Wishes To Thank:

Danielle Argyros, Michele Azenzer Bear, Gigi Bermingham, Kelly Bertrand, Jeffrey Blume, Ellen Brett, David Bridel, Steve Cubine, Chris Davis, Andrea Diamond, Brett Fenzel, Laura Frye, Gene Gallerano, CJ Hoke, Becca Kahn, Courtney Kemp, Alexandra Kinnard, Jacqueline Koppell, Victoria Markus, Manon Mathews, Andy Maycock, Ryan Millis, Kristin Minter, Monica Mitchell, Cameron Northey, Natsuko Ohama, Lindsey Pearlman, Taylor Schilling, Kristin Seeger, Justin Shanes, Sheryll Shaps, Caroline Smith, Joel Swetow, Matthew Swift, Sarah Tapscott, Judy, and Michael Thorpe, Abby Todd, Patrick Wenk-Wolff, Michelle West, and Daniel Zaitchik.

With Special Thanks To:

The Riverside County Film Commission, The Greater Palm Springs Film Alliance and Film Office, and The City of Desert Hot Springs.