A historical thriller starring Kurtwood Smith as famed psychologist B.F. Skinner as he conducts a chilling experiment into the nature of addiction in his Harvard University lab. Why do people with additive disorder continue to return to the very substance or behavior that's destroying their lives? And what does it take to step out of that pattern of behavior and find recovery? Men In A Box explores some of the answers to these questions in a film that writer and director Lowell Cauffiel says was inspired by college psychology classes and his love of of early Twilight Zone episodes. In film form, entertainment education harnesses the power of a story well told. Social scientists at the University of Southern California and other institutions have identified the viewer's cognitive process watching a good story as "narrative transportation." When a viewer becomes engrossed in a tale, he or she loses his sense of self and becomes immersed in that world and its characters. This then can affect their real-world beliefs. Often it causes them to focus on the connections of the characters and the story to their own lives. Often they initiate action they may not have done had they not been exposed to the story. Men In A Box is also an official selection of the Hollyshorts Films Festival and the Reel Recovery Film Festival. Includes an evidence-based workbook which offers counselors, facilitators and therapists the leading-edge tool to help clients and patients address the chemical dependency disorders negatively impacting their lives. Men In A Box is the second of the three stories in the Trilogy of Recovery Series which correspond with the first three steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, and also used in other Twelve Step programs like Narcotics Anonymous. Bed Ridden is about the Step One journey to admit powerlessness over addiction. Men In A Box is about Step Two insanity and what's needed to overcome it. Plan B is about the Third Step decision to live life on life's terms. Counselors and therapists can discuss these films with patients and clients in context of the Twelve Steps used in the Minnesota Model of recovery. However, the films also stand on their own without the Twelve Step connection in that they portray behaviors common among individuals with addictive disorders.
