Works-In-Progress: SHUFFLE

Join us at Austin Public for a Works-In-Progress screening of Benjamin Flaherty’s SHUFFLE on June 13 at 6 PM. The screening will be followed by an audience feedback session moderated by Jeffrey Brown.

AFS’s Works-In-Progress series provides the growing and diverse filmmaking community of Austin peer-level critiques of rough or fine cuts of their work. Screenings are free for AFS MAKE members and above ($5 for WATCH members and nonmembers) and are followed by moderated audience feedback sessions. Do you have a film you want to submit for Works-In-Progress consideration? MAKE level members and above can apply here. Not an AFS MAKE member? Register your membership here!

ABOUT THE FILM

Shot over the course of three years, SHUFFLE follows three individuals whose lives depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive. With the filmmaker serving as narrator, their stories are interwoven with those of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst, and the former Executive Director of a Philadelphia-based treatment center. Together, they reveal a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of massive profit, and a trail of deception that leads all the way to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Content warning: This film discusses drug use, and while it does not depict the act of using, certain scenes may be triggering.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Benjamin Flaherty (Director, Editor, and Cinematographer) is a filmmaker and photographer with a diverse collection of works spanning over 15 years — from documentary and art films with Lou Reed and Julian Schnabel to commercial spots for major brands like Humana and KFC. His short-form PSAs have been awarded at Cannes, D&AD, One Show, and the Clios. His journey to sobriety in 2018, and one of the many stories heard over coffee, developed into his documentary feature debut, SHUFFLE. He’s lived and worked in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. He’s currently based in Austin.