“You can’t be a healer without being sick,” states Dimitri, the intense focal point of Michel Negroponte’s (METHADONIA, JUPITER’S WIFE) transfixing film, which might best be described as a biochemical odyssey. The words are certainly apt in this case: Dimitri has drawn upon his own painful background of substance addiction to redesign himself as an “ibogaine provider,” leading other addicts through transformative—and illegal—detox sessions. What is ibogaine?, you may ask yourself. At its most literal, ibogaine is a psychedelic alkaloid drawn from the West African iboga plant, and is prohibited in the U.S. under the Controlled Substances Act. More abstractly, ibogaine is any number of things, depending on whom you ask: a miracle, a lifestyle, a rebirth, a threat, a religious epiphany, a trial by fire.
A growing chorus of voices testifies to ibogaine’s incomparable effectiveness in interrupting, if not outright ending, addictions to heroin, methadone, and more. The whispered success stories can sound almost impossible to those familiar with the more traditional pattern of withdrawal, as they do to Negroponte when he first hears the lore. Unsure what to think, he fastens himself to Dimitri—a most passionate ibogaine advocate—through clandestine sessions across the continent: some triumphant, some ambiguous…and one that is nearly tragic. His confidence shaken, Dimitri turns to ibogaine’s roots, traveling to Gabon in search of spiritual truths from the shamans who have based their lives on iboga’s ritual applications.
Negroponte’s lens gives audiences startling access to an underground practice that, right or wrong, has undoubtedly changed many lives. I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE is its own singular experience of unflinching honesty.
—Sandra L. Frey
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