It’s January, so like much of the country we’re cold and staying in. But luckily, there’s a small critical mass of really excellent documentary films available to watch at home, which cover issues of great concern to PopTort readers (and our mothership, the Center for Justice & Democracy). So with that, start poppin’ the popcorn as we introduce The First Annual PopTort Film Festival!
Bleed Out. When if comes to medical malpractice, there’s no better film than Bleed Out, by our friend Steve Burrows. The film is on HBO, and streaming on HBO Now and HBO Go.
At times funny, at times tragic, this entertaining and completely relatable story shows: how medical errors and negligence destroy patients' lives and ruin families; in incredible detail the astronomical medical costs of negligence including costs to taxpayers; the stupidity of “tort reform” and the enormous challenges facing lawyers and clients trying to bring cases especially where tort limits exists; and the completely messed up health care system made far worse by the colossal number of preventable errors.
Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins, who first figured out that medical errors are the third leading cause of death, is the film’s expert. You can find many of his articles in the Center for Justice & Democracy's Medical Malpractice Briefing Book. By the end of the film, you how the system can allow crooked, lying, unethical health care providers to get away with horrendous negligence, and is rigged against injured patients and their families.
By the way, there’s another new patient safety documentary out, called To Err is Human, which you can rent on various streaming services including iTunes and Amazon Prime. We have not seen this film yet – it may be more aimed at medical audiences based on the screening schedule. But it is endorsed by our good friend Helen Haskell, Founder of Mothers Against Medical Errors, who is a great advocate for patient safety and protecting the legal rights of injured patients.
The Devil We Know, which you can stream on Netflix or rent on various streaming services.This film tells an unbelievable story that we started covering at the ThePopTort in 2008 and through the next seven years, about how Dupont knowingly polluted water supplies of two West Virginia and four Ohio water districts with C-8, the chemical used to manufacture Teflon, and then tried to cover it up.” (Actually, by now they’ve poisoned 99% of humanity.) The film includes a few friends of ours, including brilliant West Virginia lawyer Harry Deitzler, who figured out how to create a valid epidemiological study to nail Dupont by using “the $70 million health and education fund from the [class action] settlement to pay people $400 each to participate” in it. Gotcha, Dupont!
The Bleeding Edge, on Netflix. The Bleeding Edge is to dangerous medical devices what Bleed Out is to medical malpractice. Two great films with blood in their title. If you're confused, watch both! We covered The Bleeding Edge last summer. Here’s what we said then – and repeat now:
[There is] a compelling (yet terrifying) new “must-see” documentary now streaming on Netflix called “The Bleeding Edge.” Here’s the Los Angeles Times’ lead paragraph about it:
If body-horror auteur David Cronenberg had dramatized any of the nightmarish stories in Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s medical documentary “The Bleeding Edge,” you wouldn’t hesitate to call it a fright film. Such is the grim impact of this investigative, wince-inducing examination of the $400 billion medical device industry, which routinely sends FDA-approved products into the marketplace for use on and in patients without any rigorous clinical safety-testing on humans.
The film shows us the results of this corruption. Not pretty.
Dirty Laundry, now available on Vimeo on Demand, is a powerful expose of the vile asbestos industry. The filmmakers tell a very personal and entertaining story, through which they show, “the stark reality of corporate dissembling and apparent disregard for lives lost, and lives still being placed at risk, from the continued manufacture and use of asbestos, the creation of open asbestos waste sites, and the reckless excavation of contaminated ground.”
Fahrenheit 11/9, now streaming on Amazon Prime and other places. We recommend this film mainly for the startling explanation of the Flint water crisis, which we’ve covered often (e.g. here here.) (There are other good parts, but allow us to rant a bit. Some parts of the film seem very naive, such as its negative portrayal of hero-of-the-moment, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ridiculing her as part of an ineffective resistance to Trump. PopTort insiders have always known of her behind-the-scenes genius even when she wasn’t speaker. I can only think these filmmakers were unaware of this and maybe have now woken up to it? Case in point: she ensured that her party stuck together to oppose anti-civil justice bills rammed through the House in early 2017. Because (in part) these bills passed with virtually no bi-partisan support thanks to her leadership, they came to the Senate in a severely weakened state. In fact, none were ever brought up again despite being rushed through the House as high-priority items for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Wish the filmmakers understood a little better how Congress works.)
Hot Coffee. Finally, there’s the 2011 HBO film, Hot Coffee – an oldie but goodie, which you can still rent on Amazon or stream on Amazon Prime. We’ve said so much about this film already so if you’ve forgetten, you can read this - or just watch the trailer:
So PopTort fans. Any other film suggestions? Just let us know!
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