Knife Skills (2017)

This is the second of the Oscar nominated short documentaries to deal with widespread drug use and the consequences of that.  While Heroin(e) focused on the opiate epidemic full on, this film deals with the act of giving people purpose and options when they get out of prison.  In Cleveland, Ohio a restaurant called Edwin's opened with a French chef and a professional sous chef, but the rest of the staff were recently released from prison.  Many of them had limited cooking skills and not one of the featured ex-cons was familiar with traditional French cuisine.  The program at Edwin's, six months in length, is aimed at making them highly trained restaurant workers who can work in a high end restaurant.  They do not all make it through.  Not even a majority of them make it, but those that do have made great strides back to having a meaningful life and a skill they can use.  The restaurant continues to be open, and it is all about what can be done to make a difference.  And the background is that drugs were a part of the picture for a majority of those who were behind bars.  Excellent short documentary streaming on The New Yorker website.