My Life and Times, by the reformed criminal, recovering heroin addict and now filmmaker Garry Fraser, is a candid look at the life of addiction and social exclusion in his housing estate of Muirhouse in Edinburgh.
The film shows Fraser unsuccessfully trying to go "cold turkey", finding old friends suffering from HIV, and having an emotional reunion with a former foster parent, as well as revealing the sexual abuse he suffered while he was in a children's home.
The hour-long documentary by Fraser, who directed the programme, and producer Aimara Recques, is a shorter version of a feature-length film, which is planned to be released later this year and was inspired by a desire by Fraser to understand "how things could have gone so wrong for him and so many people around him".
Fraser, who is now off drugs and running his own Wideo Media company, also heavily criticises the use of methadone to treat heroin addicts, and says that in some ways his film is an answer to the controversial television series The Scheme, which he felt patronised and misrepresented life on poverty-stricken housing estates.
"I really wanted to make this film to show society what life is really like on council estates, because it is not what I think society thinks it is," he said.
"I want people to see methadone is a messed-up programme, and I also want people to see how people get into the life of addiction."
The personal journey depicted in the film, while showing candidly the effects and reality of addiction, also shows the support of Fraser's family, his work with young men as part of his media project, and a moving meeting with a former foster parent.
It also, however, reveals his sexual abuse by an adult while he was in a children's home, and his subsequent violent life as a drug dealer in Edinburgh.
"This is a deeply personal story that I hope transcends into more than just a film," he says.
"I think it shows why people from these schemes do the things they do. I hope it will make it harder for society to judge and dismiss us."
Fraser said he was critical of BBC Scotland's Bafta award- winning documentary series The Scheme, which followed the lives of families on the Onthank and Knockinlaw housing schemes in Kilmarnock.
"When I saw The Scheme I rang the BBC because it isn't the scheme I knew: I thought it was patronising, I thought it was over the top and I felt bad for them – where were the working mothers, for example?
"This is the 'proper' Scheme if you like. I can only hide behind the truth and this is the truth."
He added: "I am completely clean now and I feel amazing. I am a gentle person, the thing about violence is that it goes from generation to generation and now I have to make sure I am a role model.
"If a boy can see this, they might realise there's others like them out there."
Ms Recques said: "It's my ambition to make films that broaden audiences' view of the world.
"Garry is an engaging personality. I know his magnetism will compel people to stop and think about the issues he presents in telling his story. That's what I'm in this business for."
My Life and Times will be shown on BBC2 Scotland on July 22 at 10pm.
