MIDDLEBURY — Vermont Filmmaker Bess O’Brien will discuss and show excerpts from her film “The Hungry Heart” in a talk at Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury on Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. Her talk, “The Hungry Heart,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public.
“The Hungry Heart” is O’Brien’s latest film, which provides an intimate look at the often hidden world of prescription drug addiction in Vermont. The film recently won the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s 2015 Media Award.
O’Brien is the director/producer of “The Hungry Heart” and “Ask Us Who We Are,” a powerful documentary about foster care in Vermont. She is also the director/producer of the highly acclaimed feature film “Shout It Out,” based on the lives of Vermont teens and the original Voices Project live musical.
O’Brien has also produced and directed a number of award-winning documentary films. She co-founded Kingdom County Productions with her husband Jay Craven in 1990, and has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2010 National Education Association (NEA) Human and Civil Rights Award for “Shout It Out,” and the prestigious Producers Guild of America Award in Los Angeles with Jay Craven.