Type 1 diabetes

Strong nonfiction films populate this year’s SXSW Film Festival, giving critical issues a personal countenance. A case in point, directors Rachael Dyer and Scott Alexander Ruderman’s Pay or Die which profiles three families impacted by type 1 diabetes. This chronic, insulin dependent illness results from the pancreas producing too little or no insulin. The healthcare crisis that faces three million Americans is paying for their essential insulin, the sixth most expensive liquid in the world, costing $113,000 per gallon.

The price of prescription drugs has been in the news a lot in the last few years. What was once affordable for anyone is now so expensive that people are dying because they can’t afford life-saving medication. One example of that is at the center of Pay or Die, a documentary that focuses on Type 1 Diabetes, and the increased cost of insulin, which has led to the deaths of too many T1D patients. Three families dealing with these high costs or the tragedy caused by them, are followed as they try to navigate or work to change a system that leaves the poor behind in one of the richest countries in the world.