Use Once and Destroy is a Canadian short film, written and directed by John L'Ecuyer and released in 1995.Peter Goddard, "Canadian filmmakers excel at short-subject movies and Lawrence Green continues the tradition with Reconstruction". Toronto Star, December 1, 1995. Created as a student project in L'Ecuyer's second year of film studies at Ryerson University, the film features L'Ecuyer narrating the story of his own prior experiences as a heroin addict."Special Report: Toronto International Film Festival: Curtis’s Charm". Playback, September 11, 1995.
Made for just $250, the film's genesis resulted from a magazine asking L'Ecuyer to write an article about his experiences as an addict.
The film premiered at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention from the Best Canadian Short Film award jury."Surprise winner for best Canadian film at Toronto Film Festival is Live Bait". Canadian Press, September 17, 1995. L'Ecuyer's feature film debut, Curtis's Charm, premiered at the same festival.Geoff Pevere, "The romance of junkie paranoia: John L'Ecuyer, director of the heroin tale, Curtis's Charm, feels no repentance for his past. He just transferred his passion for the drug to film". The Globe and Mail, September 14, 1995.
L'Ecuyer subsequently published a memoir of his experiences as a drug addict, also titled Use Once and Destroy, in 1998.Hal Niedzviecki, "Use Once and Destroy". Quill & Quire, Fall 1998.
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