2023 Big Apple Film Festival: “A Basement in Queens”, 77 minutes | United States | 2023
Tickets
Cinema Village
22 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003
November 5, 2023, 7:30 – 9:00 PM EST
“A Cautionary Tale for the Parents of Troubled Teens”
This film is a personal journey that pulls back the curtain on the secretive and often abusive world of the troubled teen industry (TTI), that preyed on teens and their unwitting parents, often leading to lifelong psychological damage, PTSD and hosts of other issues that changed their lives forever.
In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs” was in full swing, and therapeutic communities (TCs) were an essential tool in that arsenal. Trouble teens across the country found themselves swept up on the frontlines of that war. Out of desperation, many parents turned to these troubled teen centers, many of which used hardcore rehabilitative practices and bizarre behavior modification.
Adam’s story starts in 1982 at 14 years old in Queens, NY, at the now defunct Aurora Concept Inc, an adult drug rehabilitation center and therapeutic community. Aurora built its therapeutic practices on post WWII military behavior modification experiments and the infamous Synanon – rehab center and cult. Out of those experiments evolved the drug rehab therapies that even today inform addiction counseling programs worldwide.
Adam has worked for 14 years to bring this story to light. He interviews survivors, parents, historians, and experts from the last five decades to expose the inner workings of a troubled teen industry that endures today.
Cinema Village
22 E 12th St, New York, NY 10003
November 5, 2023, 7:30 – 9:00 PM EST
https://bigapplefilmfestival2023.eventive.org/films/652d8ccb46f42500ba292465