LI expo to screen heroin recovery short film

A Northport woman is sharing her journey of her first year of recovery in a short film that has been getting rave reviews. Marisa Vitali produced, wrote and acted in "Grace," which is based on her

News 12 Staff

Jul 8, 2015, 2:09 AM

Updated 3,439 days ago

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A Northport woman is sharing her journey of her first year of recovery in a short film that has been getting rave reviews.
Marisa Vitali produced, wrote and acted in "Grace," which is based on her struggle with heroin addiction. The film has won multiple awards and has been screened at many prestigious film festivals across the world.
"This film is for every addict who's living clean in recovery today. And it's a celebration of their life and my life," Vitali told News 12.
Vitali says she's been clean for more than 13 years. She talks openly about her time on the party scene when she was in high school.
"Back then it would be Ecstasy, cocaine, crystal meth, angel dust, acid," she said. "The using was always like -- it's a party and this is what people do when they go out and it's not a big deal."
It was later on in life when heroin became a weekly habit.
"It definitely wasn't the life I had imagined myself living. Being evicted from my apartment. Losing job after job after job. I was always a very social person and I can say my world got very small very fast," Vitali told News 12.
She credits detox, in and outpatient treatments and attending meetings for her recovery.
"I just feel so blessed and privileged to be able to share this story and have this conversation with people," says Vitali.
"Grace" is being featured this week at the Long Island International Film Expo beginning Wednesday.