How Union County Writer/Director Adam Meeks Made A Recovery Story That Felt Authentic
Applications for the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab are now open. The deadline for non-Members is August 31st, while Film Independent Members have until September 14th.
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“I never wanted to shortcut the process of building real relationships. “Adam Meeks, writer/director of the new film Union County started the journey of making a film about the opioid epidemic after seeing what it did to his community in Ohio. As Meeks, a Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and Fast Track Fellow, learned more about it, he kept being led to Adult Recovery Court, a program that gives an alternative to jail time and includes treatment services, drug testing, and regular meetings with a judge. It was in one of those courtroom sessions that Meeks felt like there was a story that needed to be shared.
That was in 2018. One of the key elements that makes Union County resonate is how Meeks took time to develop the relationships with people in the Adult Recovery Court system in Ohio. One of those people was Annette Deao, a program director who became a close confidant, and who’s background in acting led her to play a version of herself in the film.
It was that kind of relationship building that got Meeks into the rooms where these programs were happening and where these lives were changing. The film captured real court sessions and recovery meetings, and weaved those into the story of brothers Cody and Jack, played by Will Poulter and Noah Centineo.
We spoke with Meeks about the interplay between the documentary and fiction, how that led to an authentic portrayal, and how the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab helped him weave the two together.
Union County is in theaters now.
This started as a short, I wanted to talk about what were some of the challenges of expanding it into a more fleshed out world.
It starts on the page, right? The kind of structure that can hold a 12-page story is very different from the structure that can hold a 95-page story.
I knew that the trajectory was going to be the same, but I wanted to tell the story over what’s called Phase One of the Drug Court Program. Annette, who runs the program and is also plays a version of herself in the movie, has spoken to me a lot about how the first phase is the most important one in terms of setting a foundation for success. It’s the hardest phase to complete because of that. If we saw a character at the end of the film moving into Phase Two, graduating from Phase One, then it could feel hopeful without saying this is the end of the story or that he’s figured everything out.
And then there were different relationships around him that I felt I could explore in more depth with the feature. Cody and Jack’s relationship and their arc, their relationship with Annette, a lot of that comes from stories that folks told me who had been through Annette’s program.
Then there’s finding the right collaborators, the actors and the money and resources to make it. This project took seven years between short and feature. And although that feels like a long time, it did feel like the amount of time we needed. To get all those pieces in place and for them to be the right pieces takes time when you’re making your first feature.
What first drew you to the story and when it comes to spending time in the community and how do you translate that experience to the page?
I’m from this part of Ohio. At the time I was really aware of the way that the opioid epidemic was directly impacting my extended family and friends. And I’d been meeting with folks and trying to get a sense of what was happening in my community and why.
And as I was asking questions, people kept pointing me towards local adult recovery courts. My uncle happened to know a judge that invited me to sit in on a meeting. In that meeting, I was immediately moved by the compassion and the empathy in that room, the joy and the humanity of people who were on the right track. The community that was surrounding them was helping them do so in a robust long-term program that’s intention was to give folks an alternative to jail time and an opportunity to get back on their feet.
The felt so radical to me. So with that, I thought of how I can make a film that shares what it feels like in this room. What immediately followed that thought was that I want to make this in collaboration with the community. Because the best, most authentic way to do that is to allow individuals and the community to step forward and tell their own stories.
That was in 2018, and since then I developed a really close relationship with Annette Deao, who’s the program director. She’s like family to me now. She’s so trusted and beloved in her community that people were instantly willing to meet with me. I was able to express my intentions– that our intention was to celebrate and bring dignity to the process of recovery.
The judge in the film, through Annette, also became a friend and somebody who believed in what I was doing. I never wanted to shortcut the process of building real relationships.
Because the more time you spend with people, the more collaborative and open and trusting the process becomes. Throughout the first couple years of the pandemic, I would spend chunks of time in central Ohio with Annette, with the participants of the program, sitting in on open NA meetings, spending time in drug court and even recovery bowling events. There are folks in the movie who we invited to film with who I had known for four or five years.
Tell me about writing a screenplay with sparse dialogue. Did that present unique challenges for the script?
It was important to me that, because we were incorporating these documentary testimonials and interactions with folks in the community, that that the fiction that I wrote could feel observational and as close to the authentic experience of the doc stuff as possible, while still obviously being fiction.
One thing that I realized is that exposition works differently in observational documentary because, for example, when the brothers are getting reconnected and are working at the woodshop, they’re not necessarily then telling you all about their backstory. They’re just at work. And so, what that meant is that the writing became about the way they don’t express and are holding back how they feel.
We chose to trust the viewer to hold on until the moments where Cody is finally coming into his own body and getting more comfortable with himself again. When he does start to tell his own story, it feels natural to his development in the program, and it feels earned in the language of the movie.
What made you want to apply for the Screenwriting Lab and where were you with the script when you applied?
I was a couple of drafts and maybe two years into writing it. I had a couple of producers on board but had not really shared it more widely than that, and I felt like there was a bit more rigorous work to be done.
I think that I was more confident in the script than I deserved to be. What was really helpful was, this being my first film, to be able to bring something that I felt really energized by and to take that into the Lab and have it be challenged in all the right ways, and to not get to not let myself get too comfortable with something that was maybe 70 percent there.
I also knew several folks who had kind of gone through Film Independent programs and Labs and had been become part of the Film Independent family. That kind of relationship was something that I wanted. Even in the pitches and the development of the pitches, I developed professional relationships and even a couple of friendships that have continued since.
You mentioned that the Lab changed how the first 15 mins were laid out. What were those changes and what lessons did you take from that?
There was a lot that I think was implicit in the first 15 minutes that working with mentors and peers in the lab and specifically with Robin Swicord, I was encouraged to make much more explicit. A lot of that comes in an intake meeting with Annette and the parole officer when they’re outlining the rules, the processes and the stakes of the program. At the time, what I did not have in that scene were the stakes.
There’s a line where the parole officer says ‘There’s no rubric, we run this kind of case by case, but back to jail is always an option,’ teasing out the larger context for how this program fits into the justice system and also what the stakes might be for Cody as he enters into this. A lot of that was implicit and I was really encouraged to make explicit.
Sometimes in writing, you get too far ahead of yourself, or you assume too much what the audience might already know. And what Robin and I think the labs in general were so helpful at was being like, ‘OK, that might be true in your head, but that’s not here on the page yet.’
How did Fast Track contribute to the film getting made?
Quite literally, two of our three financiers came out of Fast Track. We were clear beneficiaries. I remember feeling like it also brought me and the two producers who were doing it with me, together in this meaningful way. By the end of it, we were so much closer, and we knew exactly how to talk about the movie together.
Then there are a bunch of folks who I met to who I’m now talking to about another project or ended up putting in a good word for me with an agent or or a distributor. In fact, our first meeting with Oscilloscope Laboratories, who are distributing Union County, happened during Fast Track. It was an amazing way to meet a lot of meaningful people in the business in a two/three-day period of time. It’s crazy, but it’s worth it for sure.
What would you say to a screenwriter thinking about applying to the Screenwriting Lab?
I would say unequivocally 100 percent apply. Even if you don’t get in, your script will be further along and your knowledge of your project and process will be further along by just getting the project to the place where your application is ready. If you do get selected, it’ll change the trajectory of your film. And if you’re like me, it’ll change the trajectory of your professional life.
Applications for the Film Independent Screenwriting Lab are now open. The deadline for non-Members is August 31st, while Film Independent Members have until September 14th.
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