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DC/DOX Film Festival 2023

Pay or Die

  • United States
  • 2023
  • 90 min.
  • DC Premiere
Venue
Venue featured image

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center, Cafritz Hall

1529 16TH STREET NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036, DC
Screening Information
Program

Pay or Die

Date

June 16

TIME

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

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June 16 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT

Pay or Die

The US healthcare system is the most expensive in the world and close to half of all Americans reportedly struggle to pay for their healthcare. Pay or Die explores the crushing financial reality for millions of insulin dependent Americans living with diabetes, as pharmaceutical companies push the price of this life saving medication to exorbitant levels, making record breaking profits. This is only further bolstered by the government’s lack of regulation. Pay or Die voices the stories of families struggling to afford their life saving medications in one of the richest countries in the world, the United States of America. This enraging and enlightening film lays bare the human cost of the United States’ insulin affordability crisis, and serves as a call to action against the medical-industrial complex that monetizes our bodies and lives.

Details

Date:
June 16
Time:
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
Website:
Visit Website →

Venue

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center, Cafritz Hall
1529 16TH STREET NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20036, DC 20036 United States

« All Events

June 16 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT

Pay or Die

The US healthcare system is the most expensive in the world and close to half of all Americans reportedly struggle to pay for their healthcare. Pay or Die explores the crushing financial reality for millions of insulin dependent Americans living with diabetes, as pharmaceutical companies push the price of this life saving medication to exorbitant levels, making record breaking profits. This is only further bolstered by the government’s lack of regulation. Pay or Die voices the stories of families struggling to afford their life saving medications in one of the richest countries in the world, the United States of America. This enraging and enlightening film lays bare the human cost of the United States’ insulin affordability crisis, and serves as a call to action against the medical-industrial complex that monetizes our bodies and lives.

Details

Date:
June 16
Time:
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm EDT
Website:
Visit Website →

Venue

Edlavitch Jewish Community Center, Cafritz Hall
1529 16TH STREET NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20036, DC 20036 United States

Pay or Die

Directors

Rachael Dyer, Scott Alexander Ruderman

Executive Producers

Sheila Nevins, Trish Adlesic, Sarah Silverman, Amy Zvi, Regina K. Scully, Lauran Bromley, Douglas Choi, Dawn Bonder, Marci Wiseman, Russell Long, Sarah Lucas and Zak Kilberg

Producers

Rachael Dyer, Scott Alexander Ruderman, Yael Melamede

Editors

Will Rogers, Toby Shimin

Cinematographers

Scott Alexander Ruderman

Today, nearly two million Americans living with diabetes are being held hostage by the pharmaceutical industry, as many cannot afford insulin. 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. From a mother and daughter struggling to rebuild their lives after spending their rent money on insulin, to a young adult diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic, to a Minnesota family thrust into the national spotlight when their 26-year-old son dies from rationing his insulin, Pay or Die highlights this devastating struggle to survive while living with diabetes.

 

Courtesy of MTV Documentary Films

PayorDie_S.Ruderman

Scott Alexander Ruderman

Co-Director, Pay or Die

Scott Ruderman lives with type 1 diabetes and is an award-winning filmmaker and cinematographer whose work has been screened in film festivals around the world as well as on Netflix, BBC, HBO, A&E, Hulu, and Discovery +. Scott’s documentary short, Piano Craftsman, premiered at Big Sky Documentary Festival and Mountain Film Festival and won the best director award at Madrid Art Film Festival. Scott’s recent cinematography credits include Andy Warhol’s America (2022), and a BBC mini-series, Chasing Ghislaine (2021). His cinematography work can also be seen on HBO Max’s The Crime of the Century (2021), Netflix’s (Un)well (2020), and Hulu’s Taste the Nation (2020), which was nominated for an IFP Gotham Award. Ruderman’s producing credits include Unanswered Ives, which was awarded the Czech Crystal at the 2019 Golden Prague International Film Festival, and Whiter Shade of Terror, a film about the global spread of anti-muslim rhetoric and an increasingly violent white supremacy movement. Most recently, Scott was a producer on the film Rock Chicks, an upcoming documentary that tells the stories of women in rock’n’roll. Ruderman holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts.

PayorDie_R.Dyer

Rachael Dyer

Co-Director, Pay or Die

Rachael Dyer, an Australian native and Canadian citizen based in New York, is an award-winning producer and journalist whose career has taken her across the globe, featuring stories seen on Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney, HBO Max, Peacock, Oxygen, Discovery ID, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network and BBC. Most recently, she was a senior producer on Hillary & Chelsea Clinton’s documentary series, Gutsy (2022) for Apple TV + as well as a 4 part series, Keep This Between Us (2022), for Disney’s Freeform channel. Currently, she is working as a senior producer on a 90-minute special on Sheri Papini: Lies, Lies and More Lies for Peacock. Her previous credits can be found on Netflix’s hit series (Un)Well (2020) and Quibi’s Answered by Vox (2020). Prior to her work in documentary, she worked in the field covering breaking news stories for BBC, Australian networks 7, 9, ABC, and Channel News Asia. Rachael was awarded Southern California’s Journalist Award for best international feature, as well as a Clio Entertainment Grand-winning entry for her work on The Greatest Showman Live – the world’s first live commercial for a theatrical release.