Black Opiate Entertainment is a Vancouver-based production company focused on creating stylish, elevated genre feature films and true crime documentary series.
Our mission is to craft stories that not only captivate the imagination but engage audiences, pushing the boundaries of filmmaking, both in fiction and nonfiction. We are committed to finding unusual stories: sometimes dark (but always entertaining), while amplifying strong female voices and diverse perspectives both in front and behind the camera. We choose projects that challenge us to push the boundaries of filmmaking, using cutting edge and retro film techniques. And we actively seek better ways to showcase our films to audiences, both domestically and internationally, through eventized screenings and partnerships with film festivals and like-minded associations.
Black Opiate is the marriage between Karen Lam’s Opiate Pictures and Kate Kroll’s Black Moon Media. Together, we combine decades of film and television experience, with an emphasis on prestige genre filmmaking that explores the darker corners of human experience—whether through chilling, original fiction or gripping, real-life investigations.
Kate Kroll and Karen Lam first crossed paths in 2013 while working on the Disney+ Investigation Discovery true crime series Very Bad Men, where Lam served as Showrunner and Kroll as Production Manager. Almost 10 years later, we reunited to produce the psychedelic dark comedy feature film, Armageddon Road. The film combines volume wall technology with practical miniatures in an entirely imaginative way: https://youtu.be/dgz-OD4todA?si=h9-pv1evk-jrRD49
Our collaborative synergy is unparalleled: we each bring a unique set of strengths that naturally complement the other to form the foundation of Black Opiate Entertainment. Under this new integrated company, we are capable of overseeing every stage of the filmmaking process: from scriptwriting, financing, and production planning at every budget level, to the delivery of high quality, stylish content.
We have never been ones to sit back and wait to be chosen: we make things happen.