Back in the 90s, Lanre Fehintola was a talented photojournalist who got hooked on heroin and crack while photographing addicts in Bradford. He started dealing, served time in prison, but never gave up on photography. “It saved my life,” he says in this raw, affectionate documentary directed by his friend Leo Regan from more than 25 years of footage. It’s Regan’s third film about Fehintola – and it’s easy to see what keeps him coming back. As a young man, Fehintola had such life force, such energy; a personality of extremes, he was self-destructive and sensitive, completely intoxicating.
This film begins with Fehintola in the present day, processing his recent diagnosis of lung cancer. Doctors have given him six months to live. “It is what is, Leo” he grins at the camera, charisma still cranked up past 10. Back in the 90s, the pair of them were young idealistic reportage photographers knocking around London. They took Robert Capa’s mantra to heart: “If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Fehintola went back to Bradford where he grew up to photograph addicts. Naive or reckless, with no fear for his own safety, he started taking hard drugs – for research purposes, he says. “I never intended to become an addict.”
