Exclusive: MTV Documentary Films’ impressive slate of short films will debut on the Paramount+ streaming platform on Tuesday, a lineup that includes The ABCs of Book Banning, the directorial debut of documentary legend Sheila Nevins.
Nevins executive produces all five of the films joining Paramount+. In addition to her own film, co-directed by Trish Adlesic and Nazenet Habtezghi, the slate boasts Alive in Bronze: Huey P. Newton, about the artistic collaboration between sculptor Dana King and Fredrika Newton, widow of the Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton. The film chronicles their creation of a bust honoring Newton, for a monument in Oakland, Calif. where the Black Panther Party emerged.
The five shorts join a pair of award-winning features from MTV Documentary Films that premiered in recent days on Paramount+: Maite Alberdi’s Sundance winner The Eternal Memory and Pay or Die, directed by Rachael Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman,...
Nevins executive produces all five of the films joining Paramount+. In addition to her own film, co-directed by Trish Adlesic and Nazenet Habtezghi, the slate boasts Alive in Bronze: Huey P. Newton, about the artistic collaboration between sculptor Dana King and Fredrika Newton, widow of the Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton. The film chronicles their creation of a bust honoring Newton, for a monument in Oakland, Calif. where the Black Panther Party emerged.
The five shorts join a pair of award-winning features from MTV Documentary Films that premiered in recent days on Paramount+: Maite Alberdi’s Sundance winner The Eternal Memory and Pay or Die, directed by Rachael Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman,...
- 11/16/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
MTV Documentary Films has released the trailer for “Pay Or Die,” a documentary about America’s soaring insulin costs that the platform acquired out of this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival.
The 90-minute film, which was executive produced by Sarah Silverman, will open theatrically at New York City’s IFC Center on November 1, the first day of National Diabetes Month. That screening will be followed by a nationwide rollout. The theatrical release of the doc will qualify it for Academy Award consideration. Paramount + will begin streaming “Pay Or Die” on World Diabetes Day – Nov. 14.
Directed by Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer, “Pay Or Die” follows three families struggling to afford their diabetes medications. In 2022 the American Diabetes Association reported that over 37 million Americans – about 11% of the nation – are living with diabetes and 8.4 million Americans rely on insulin to survive. According to “Pay Or Die” nearly two-million...
The 90-minute film, which was executive produced by Sarah Silverman, will open theatrically at New York City’s IFC Center on November 1, the first day of National Diabetes Month. That screening will be followed by a nationwide rollout. The theatrical release of the doc will qualify it for Academy Award consideration. Paramount + will begin streaming “Pay Or Die” on World Diabetes Day – Nov. 14.
Directed by Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer, “Pay Or Die” follows three families struggling to afford their diabetes medications. In 2022 the American Diabetes Association reported that over 37 million Americans – about 11% of the nation – are living with diabetes and 8.4 million Americans rely on insulin to survive. According to “Pay Or Die” nearly two-million...
- 10/5/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
“Pay or Die,” a new feature from MTV Documentary Films, lays bare the cost of America’s insulin crisis.
Directed by Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer, the doc, which premiered at SXSW in March, illustrates how Type 1 diabetics are struggling to afford insulin — a liquid that most humans are lucky enough to produce naturally in their bodies. For those whose bodies have stopped producing it (through no fault of their own) and who can’t pay for it, the consequences can be fatal, as the documentary’s main subject, Nicole Smith-Holt, knows all too well.
“He could not afford to stay alive,” she tells the filmmakers of her son Alec, a Type 1 diabetic who died at the age of 26. Despite earning a salary of $40,000, he could not afford medical supplies, which topped $1,000 per month. He was found dead in 2017 from complications caused by rationing insulin just three and a...
Directed by Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer, the doc, which premiered at SXSW in March, illustrates how Type 1 diabetics are struggling to afford insulin — a liquid that most humans are lucky enough to produce naturally in their bodies. For those whose bodies have stopped producing it (through no fault of their own) and who can’t pay for it, the consequences can be fatal, as the documentary’s main subject, Nicole Smith-Holt, knows all too well.
“He could not afford to stay alive,” she tells the filmmakers of her son Alec, a Type 1 diabetic who died at the age of 26. Despite earning a salary of $40,000, he could not afford medical supplies, which topped $1,000 per month. He was found dead in 2017 from complications caused by rationing insulin just three and a...
- 6/8/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: MTV Documentary Films has acquired worldwide rights to Pay or Die, a heart wrenching film about Americans living with diabetes who face a cruel choice: pay the “extortionate” cost of insulin charged by pharmaceutical companies or risk death.
Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer directed and produced the documentary, which premiered in March at SXSW. MTV Documentary Films plans a theatrical release later this year, followed by a debut on streaming platform Paramount+.
“Today, nearly two-million Americans living with diabetes are being held hostage by the pharmaceutical industry, as many cannot afford insulin,” notes a release about the documentary. “Without this life-sustaining drug, they will be dead in days. Access to this drug has become increasingly more difficult, as the cost to patients in America soars. Pay or Die follows families struggling to afford their medications and reveals the harrowing reality of living with a chronic illness in the richest country in the world.
Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer directed and produced the documentary, which premiered in March at SXSW. MTV Documentary Films plans a theatrical release later this year, followed by a debut on streaming platform Paramount+.
“Today, nearly two-million Americans living with diabetes are being held hostage by the pharmaceutical industry, as many cannot afford insulin,” notes a release about the documentary. “Without this life-sustaining drug, they will be dead in days. Access to this drug has become increasingly more difficult, as the cost to patients in America soars. Pay or Die follows families struggling to afford their medications and reveals the harrowing reality of living with a chronic illness in the richest country in the world.
- 5/30/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
“Seven Winters in Tehran,” about a 19-year-old Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing the man who tried to rape her, will open the 34th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival on May 31 in New York City.
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
The festival, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, will feature 10 documentaries about humanitarian challenges around the world. This year’s edition spotlights themes and topics including the Ukraine conflict (“When Spring Came to Bucha”), climate gentrification and justice (“Razing Liberty Square”), women’s rights (“Draw Me Egypt”) transgender rights (“Into My Name”) freedom of the press (“The Etilaat Roz”) and access to health care in the United States (“Pay or Die”).
“From the war in Ukraine to women’s rights and bodily autonomy, to environmental gentrification and freedom of the press, these films span some of the most pressing human rights issues of our time,” says John Biaggi,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
"Pay or Die" is not only the title of a new documentary that debuted at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, but it's also the brutally blunt choice given to millions of Americans who have been forced to pay exorbitant prices for the inexpensively produced medicine that they need in order to stay alive. In the United States, of the 37 million people who have diabetes, a chronic health condition that affects how your body turns food into energy and results in high blood sugar that can cause more serious health problems. Around 8.4 million of those people that have diabetes rely on insulin to survive. Of those people, around 2 million struggle to afford their insulin costs, which has increased around 600% over the past 20 years.
Sadly, many people have died while trying to get by on the insulin they can afford, rationing it to last as long as possible until they can afford another supply.
Sadly, many people have died while trying to get by on the insulin they can afford, rationing it to last as long as possible until they can afford another supply.
- 3/20/2023
- by Ethan Anderton
- Slash Film
Here are two phrases that should forever be banned from our vernacular: “medical refugee” and “insulin rationing.” Tragically, you hear them often in Scott Alexander Ruderman and Rachael Dyer’s documentary receiving its world premiere at SXSW.
Bluntly if appropriately titled, Pay or Die serves as an infuriating reminder of the economic and social injustice permeating our system that forces people to make life-or-death choices when it comes to what should be the simple matter of procuring the medicine that would keep them alive — specifically, in this case, the insulin needed by those suffering from diabetes.
Yes, one major pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, has recently announced that it is slashing the price of the drug. And the Biden administration managed to pass a bill mandating a $35 cap on insulin for Medicare patients. (Republicans opposed expanding the price limit to all citizens, apparently unaware that diabetes afflicts those under age 65 as well.
Bluntly if appropriately titled, Pay or Die serves as an infuriating reminder of the economic and social injustice permeating our system that forces people to make life-or-death choices when it comes to what should be the simple matter of procuring the medicine that would keep them alive — specifically, in this case, the insulin needed by those suffering from diabetes.
Yes, one major pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, has recently announced that it is slashing the price of the drug. And the Biden administration managed to pass a bill mandating a $35 cap on insulin for Medicare patients. (Republicans opposed expanding the price limit to all citizens, apparently unaware that diabetes afflicts those under age 65 as well.
- 3/11/2023
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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