HALESOWEN Global Justice Group is holding a premiere of a film written and directed by a campaigning Blackheath filmmaker.

Justin Smith will also hold a question and answer question after Statin Nation: The Great Cholesterol Cover Up is shown at Halesowen United Church on Wednesday, May 8.

London based Mr Smith, aged 41, believes millions of people in the UK and across the world are taking cholesterol lowering statin drugs due to fraudulent medical evidence put forward by multi-national pharmaceutical companies.

The director, who attended Britannia High School, said: “The global cholesterol lowering business is worth $29 billion and in the UK alone eight million people are taking these drugs, many for no reason and are suffering from side effects.

“Now, an increasing number of doctors are challenging the medical evidence which has been put forward by these huge pharmaceutical companies who sell these drugs for huge profits.”

He added: “I am delighted to be speaking in Halesowen and being back so close to where I grew up in Blackheath again, it should be a wonderful night.”

The film is a follow up to Mr Smith’s book $29 Billion Reasons to lie about Cholesterol which was published last year.

Due to the controversial nature of the documentary the director got funding through obtaining small donations from supporters.

He said: “I knew I could not approach any big corporations for funding because of the subject matter so I decided to get money through crowd sourcing donations on the internet.”

One of the supporters of the film is Lorna Sewell from Halesowen Global Justice Group and she has been instrumental bringing Mr Smith to Halesowen.

She said: “We try to have speakers at the group which have interesting points of views at our meetings and Justin Smith and his film Statin Nation really offer a fascinating perspective on the global health industry.”

“We, of course, have a religious angle to this issue as if just a fraction of all the money that is spent statins was spent on combating malaria in the Third World then the world would be a better place.”

The Halesowen Global Justice Group meeting starts at 7.30pm on Wednesday, May 8 at Halesowen United Church, near ASDA.