Experiencing Interruptions?

Never Use Alone

An overdose intervention hotline operator fights to keep callers alive through a relentless overnight shift, racing to dispatch help when voices fall silent. Still haunted by the overdose death of her eldest daughter, Ramona forms raw, intimate connections with callers that force her to confront her own grief and guilt.

  • Colin Matthews
    Director
  • Colin Matthews
    Writer
  • Josh Hauca
    Producer
    Never Let Go, Coffee & Kareem, Good Boys, Joy Ride
  • Dan Clarke
    Producer
    Wonder, The Edge of Seventeen, The Interview, Good Boys
  • Chelah Horsdal
    Key Cast
    "Ramona"
    Man in the High Castle, Star Trek: Discovery, Hell On Wheels, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
  • Jessica Sutton
    Key Cast
    "Aaliyah"
    Motherland: Fort Salem, Tracker, Escape Room, The Kissing Booth
  • Bethany Brown
    Key Cast
    "Jenny"
    Marry F*** Kill, Plan B, The Good Doctor. The 100
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 12, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 CAD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Colin Matthews

Originally from the UK, Colin is an award-winning Canadian writer, director, actor, and art department member who grew up on a London council estate, the son of an East End bookie who liked to mingle with some of the underworld's more colourful characters. He attended college in California where he trained and qualified as a commercial airline pilot. In his youth, he also served in the Special Air Service (SAS) reserve unit of the British Army. He holds British, Canadian, and Irish (EU) passports.

Colin has decades of production experience with over 350 hours of produced film and television credits. He has worked Internationally on big-budget studio features and high-end television series in the U.K. Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A. During that time he has been honoured to work with award-winning directors such as Brian De Palma, James Cameron, Frank Oz, John Landis, Sidney J. Furie, and Paul Feig.

He is also an accomplished improviser and former member of the award-winning Vancouver Theatresports Improv. League. As an actor, he has performed in television series and feature films as well as a large number of theatre productions.

Last year he was a FINALIST in the Final Draft Big Break Competition (a top ten script out of 9,818 submissions!), and was in the TOP 10% of The Academy Nicholl Fellowship, a finalist in the ISA Fast Track Fellowship, a FINALIST in the Stowe Story Labs PAGE Awards Fellowship and had two scripts place highly at the PAGE Awards. He was listed on the Coverfly 2023 List of Lists featuring the best up-and-coming screenwriters, and his short film Zarathustra was recently screened to a packed house on the opening night of the 2024 Run N Gun Film Festival. Most recently, he was the WINNER of the Scribe Lounge Elevate screenwriting competition.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I was moved to write this story following the death of my friend from a fentanyl overdose. As part of my grieving process, I researched the world of the opioid/fentanyl epidemic, and this story grew out of my conversations with individuals struggling with substance use disorders, as well as with leading doctors and addiction experts. The film explores themes of loss, addiction, mental health, and the resilience of the human spirit.

66% of overdose deaths occur when users are alone. I learned of the N.O.R.S. overdose intervention line, and I am sure that increased awareness of this service could save countless lives, and this film was made with their full cooperation. If this film saves even one life, it will be worth it. I am certain that if my friend had known about this service, he would still be alive today.

We shot on an ARRI Alexa 35 camera paired with Panavision Super Speed spherical lenses to replicate the natural look of an unblinking eye that doesn’t allow us to look away from the reality of this crisis. Ramona, our main character, is alone on screen, in close-up, for almost the entire runtime. I was highly influenced by the Danish film, ‘The Guilty’ (2018), along with director Steve Buscemi’s ‘The Listener’ (2022) while developing this script. Both films feature characters on the telephone who are predominantly the only characters on screen for the film's duration. It was this unrelenting intensity and focus that became my inspiration.