His Name Is Ray (2021 Fentanyl Crisis Documentary)

Introduction

HIS NAME IS RAY humanizes the growing fentanyl and homelessness crises, not through statistics or broad generalizations, but by focusing on the story of one man whose life has spiraled out of control. Ray once had everything—serving in the Coast Guard, being a father, a husband, a man with purpose. But his addiction stripped it all away.

Now, the former sailor lives on the streets of Toronto, part of a vast population that has fallen through society’s cracks. With a deeply personal lens, the audience follows Ray on his fragile journey to escape the streets and return to the water, where in his ultimate pursuit of escape, he might just sail away from it all. After captivating audiences at TIFF and HOT DOCS, HIS NAME IS RAY has resonated globally, earning the Special Jury Prize at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.

Quotes

“He’ll smack you in the head and stuff like that. I don’t feel like going there spending $50 bucks and getting smacked in the head, you know what I mean, when I got a needle in my arm, that’s not my thing to do. So I kind of cut him off right, I go to other people and now that what he’s done, he’s realized this and he’s gone to all my other people and threatened them, and now I can’t go to them because they won’t deal with me because they’re scared of him.”

“I truly need it for pain, I just overdo it a little bit, I indulge in it … because you do get a good feeling off of it right, but there’s consequences to a good feeling.”

“This sunset on the water is just beautiful. That’s what I just die for – the sunrises and the sunfall, I just miss it so much.”

“You can say you don’t talk to your parents but think about what we’ve done for you and we can’t do it anymore for you Raymond. We can’t take it anymore with you. It’s very sad Raymond. We can’t understand your situation actually because we’ve never been into anything like that. Oh, by the way, you’re a grandfather again, a little girl. You haven’t seen her yet, Raymond. You know what your daughter said about you? I said, it’s so sad that Raymond isn’t here at the wedding, we’ve sort of given up on him. She said, we never give up on anybody. She hasn’t given up on you.”

“I know this isn’t the best way of doing things but at the moment this is the only way.”

“One of these days I’m going to get back on the water. It doesn’t take a lot of money, just the right time, right place. I don’t need a nice, expensive sailboat, just something to get me on the water moving.”

“Because you are our friend, I’d rather you do it here so we can save your life as opposed to doing it somewhere else where you can’t be saved.”

“This is the fentanyl, it’s not heroin at all. It’s a synthetic opiate and that’s about a point, $20-$25 … with this stuff here, it’s so hard to tell how much you’re putting in your system. That’s why so many people are ODing because they take a shot of a normal dosage that you take regularly and they go under.”