Will Poulter stars as Cody Parsons in "Union County," directed by Adam Meeks.(Photo credit: Oscilloscope Laboratories)Oscilloscope Laboratories

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the summer of 2017, New York-based filmmaker Adam Meeks moved back to Union County, about 45 minutes north of Columbus. His intention was to understand the place he was born and reconnect with family who still live there, not make a movie.

Then his uncle introduced him to a drug court judge, who invited Meeks to attend a meeting of the adult recovery program he presided over. What he witnessed countered the narrative he typically heard about the opioid epidemic in rural Ohio. 

“I saw humanity, empathy and compassion— a community that was showing up for itself and helping folks get back on their feet,” he said. “I was very inspired.”

Meeks recalled being in a courtroom full of complex, multidimensional people sharing laughter and joy. Everyone felt familiar, like people he knew from his hometown.

“I wanted to capture the feeling in that room because I felt like it could do a lot to upend the stigmas, clichés and expectations around addiction and recovery,” he said. 

The result was “Union County,” a short film that played the festival circuit in 2020. Five years later, Meeks returned home to write and direct a feature-length version starring Will Poulter (“The Bear”) and Noah Centineo (“To All the Boys” trilogy). The film, which premiered nationally at Sundance and locally at the Cleveland International Film Festival earlier this year, will screen Friday at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque with a Q&A featuring Meeks and Poulter ahead of its wide release Aug. 14.