HUFFPOST HEALTHY LIVING-Revolutionizing Healthcare in America: An Interview About Changing the System
America's healthcare system is broken. As a nation, we spend up to $300 billion a year on pharmaceutical drugs. About 65 percent of Americas are overweight, and almost 75 percent of America's health care costs are spent on preventable diseases. A recent documentary entitled Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare is working on bringing attention to these issues. I spoke with the director and producer Matthew Heineman about some of the issues addressed in the film.
March 16, 2013Forbes: Escape Fire's Director: Fighting to Rescue Our Healthcare System
Documentaries are a powerful tool to generate dialogue and ultimately help citizens, companies and governments make better decisions. They take time, grit and enduring effort. Matt invested 3 years. He worked with big partners as well as small ones. He tapped into the power of crowd sourcing to fund two thirds of the film. And he is working with players like CNN to share the stories at a national level.
March 13, 2013AAFP: Earn CME by Viewing Documentary of Healthcare System Failures
Family physicians have a unique opportunity to earn CME credit for tuning in to a documentary film that examines the patchwork of health facilities, health care professionals and insurers that passes for health care in America
March 10, 2013Huffington Post: Want to Help Fix Healthcare? Start by Watching a Movie Tonight
'Escape Fire' tries to shift the conversation away from the partisan bickering to the issues that what really matters: How do we create a sustainable system for the 21st century.
March 10, 2013The Movie Blog: Non-Partisian Health Care Doc to Make TV Debut
We normally don't cover TV events at movieblog but this is an important movie that deserves the largest audience possible
March 9, 2013Huffington Post: CNN's Visionary Documentary on Health Care
Stripping away the hysteria that has hijacked our discussion of this problem was the task facing two filmmakers, Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, whose superb documentary Escape Fire, premieres Sunday March 10 on CNN (8pm and repeated 11pm ET).
March 8, 2013Examiner: The American healthcare crisis is examined in 'Escape Fire' airing on CNN
The film compares the raging, out of control fire to the current healthcare system with a call to action to create unconventional solutions to the problem.
March 5, 2013Oregonian: CNN to Air Healthcare Documentary Starring Hood River Physician
The well-received 2012 healthcare documentary, Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare is headed for television, with Hood River physician Erin Martin featured prominently.
March 1, 2013DEADLINE: CNN Film Acquires 'ESCAPE FIRE' U.S TV Rights; Healthcare Doc to Air in March
This compelling film gives us an explanation of some of the factors that have contributed to our broken system and explains why we urgently need to fix it,” said network Worldwide president Jeff Zucker.
March 1, 2013REALSCREEN: CNN Buys ESCAPE FIRE
Filmmaker Matthew Heineman said, “CNN is the perfect place to release Escape Fire to spark an honest and important dialogue about the future of healthcare.”
March 1, 2013CNN: CNN Launches 'ESCAPE FIRE' on Cable Television in March
“CNN Films is very pleased to bring this documentary to television,” said Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide. “The physical health of our nation and the cost of healthcare, impact every current fiscal challenge we face."
March 1, 2013IndieWire: CNN Films Picks Up 'Escape Fire' for a March Broadcast Premiere
With health care still very much a topic at the forefront of public debate, CNN Films has picked up Susan Frömke and Matthew Heineman's documentary "Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare."
February 26, 2013MOVIE METROPOLIS: DVD Review
"It is this honesty and accuracy towards the complexity of the subject that makes 'Escape Fire' a more relevant and useful documentary than 'Sicko.'"
January 16, 2013Film Threat- ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
This provocative and often disturbing production is highly recommended, and should be seen as the starting point for a mature new debate on the subject. - Phil Hall
December 7, 2012NPR's Science Friday: Escape Fire Exposes Flaws of American Healthcare - Interview with Matthew Heineman
Director Matthew Heineman exposes what he sees as flaws in the U.S. healthcare system, such as a doctor who can spend just minutes with her patients to a soldier addicted to painkillers.
November 27, 2012Sundance Film Festival- 10 Politically-Charged Sundance Films to Break Your Election Fever
Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke offer an unparalleled, unflinching, and—quite frankly—unflattering look at one of the most pressing contemporary American issues: our broken healthcare system. - Nate von Zumwalt
November 20, 2012CNN - Documentary: Health care Overhaul needed
A documentary argues for changes to the health care system
November 9, 2012Wisconsin State Journal: Film evaluates health care system
If you care about health care, see this film. Through stories about patients and providers — including the Ohio woman treated repeatedly for heart disease and Dr. Dean Ornish’s lifestyle approach to reversing heart disease — it provides a clear look at shortcomings of the health care system and some possible solutions.
November 8, 2012Star Tribune: Reviewed in brief: Escape Fire, Side by Side
This swiftly paced documentary assembles expert talking heads and real-world patients and practitioners to discuss defusing the ticking time bomb of American health care costs. - COLIN COVERT, Star Tribune
October 31, 2012Hood River News: Film Looks At A Fix For Health Care
“The film is a non-partisan viewpoint about what’s wrong and it offers a variety of ways to fix our national health care system.” - Dr. Erin Martin, featured in film & founder of TrueMed Institute in Hood River
October 29, 2012North Carolina Health News- Documentary Focuses Problems in Healthcare System
And when the filmmakers go looking for answers, they focus on innovations being developed by groups as disparate as the corporate leadership of the Safeway grocery chain, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic and the U.S. military health-care system. - Rose Hoban
October 27, 2012NBC 17 - Now Or Later: Movie Reviews with Joel Frady
Joel Frady gives his reviews of Cloud Atlas and Escape Fire.
October 24, 2012Independent Weekly- Escape Fire reminds us that despite Obamacare, we have a long way to go
"In this vignette, in which we see already-sick patients seeking treatments for preventable illnesses, we get the key themes of Escape Fire: an unhealthy America, riven by poverty and avoidable ailments like obesity, heart disease and diabetes, with no front-line support to encourage healthful habits." -David Fellerath, Indyweek.com
October 19, 2012Med Gadget: Interview with Filmmaker, Matthew Heineman
"I’m hopeful that this film will really inspire institutions and individuals to change. I’m optimistic that this type of change – at the local level, hospital by hospital and institution by institution – can contribute to fixing the healthcare system." - Matthew Heineman
October 17, 2012Filming Aboard a Transatlantic Military Medivac
"Shooting aboard the C-17 Air Force Medivac plane was definitely an exhilarating, moving experience. We got some of our most gripping footage on the flight." - Matthew Heineman
October 13, 2012Neil Rosen’s ESCAPE FIRE review on NY1
Neil Rosen, joined by Thelma Adams, Lisa Rosman, and Bill McCuddy rave about Escape Fire.
October 12, 2012BeliefNet - Matthew Heineman of the Health Care Documentary, “Escape Fire”
"75% of healthcare costs go to preventable diseases, so how did this system come to be? Why did it not want to change? We wanted to try and find people out there who are trying to change it." - Matthew Heineman
October 11, 2012Examiner - fascinating documentary reveals some answers to the health care problems in this country.
"Everyone should see this documentary, everyone. There are answers to the seemingly impossible healthcare system."
October 9, 2012Cinema Without Borders - Q&A with Director, Matthew Heineman
"I care deeply about relevant social issues and they are important to address. Healthcare is one of the most important issues effecting America today" - Matthew Heineman
October 9, 2012Forbes - How Hospitals Can Stop Killing So Many Patients
Colleagues said you could have more information about toothpaste or a car you are buying than you can have about the healthcare you get. The “raging” interest in reform has even sparked creation of a documentary, Escape Fire.
October 8, 2012Huffington Post Live - “Losing Patients," Heineman, Nissen, and Martin discuss healthcare reform
Matthew Heineman is joined live by Dr. Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Erin Martin.
October 8, 2012Huffington Post - Does America Really Want Change?
There are leaders in medicine, business, government and the military who are supporting change within the system in ways that empower individuals to lead healthier lives. We are all in this together, and it will take commitment by all of us to create a sustainable healthcare system for the 21st century."
October 5, 2012Washington City Paper - Healthcare documentary raises our blood pressure, as if we needed that
The film’s commentators describe a better way to handle health care: prevention. Alternative medical practices are explored, most surprisingly by the military, with one mentally and physically disabled soldier opting to ditch the Target bag full of meds he’s on and try acupuncture, yoga, and meditation. (Spoiler alert: They help.)
October 5, 2012The Aisle Seat - "If you plan on visiting a doctor this year, make sure you see this film first."
This documentary pinpoints the things about our system that desperately need to change, for the good of each and every one of us. It also gives some excellent suggestions on how to achieve this change. If you plan on visiting a doctor this year, make sure you see this film first.
October 5, 2012Think Progress - "'Escape Fire' Director Matthew Heineman on What Comes After Health Care Reform" - feature
"I think one of the biggest things that we learned in making the film is that we do have a lot of power as individuals and we need to take greater control of our health. Seventy-five percent of health care costs go to preventable diseases. We as a society need to become healthier." - Matthew Heineman
October 5, 2012The Washingotn Times - Igniting Your Own 'Escape Fire' to better health
"Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, Escape Fire shines a large and unforgiving spotlight on what most everyone agrees is a broken system – one that spends almost as much on pharmaceutical drugs as the rest of the world combined and is far more focused on disease management than healthcare."
October 5, 2012Yahoo Voices: ESCAPE FIRE: Should Be Mandatory Viewing for Politicians
The beauty of this film is its clarity and bipartisan stance. Regardless what side of the congressional aisle, these healthcare experts all agree that the system is broken.
October 5, 2012Indiewire - Review: 'Escape Fire' Paints A Portrait Of A Broken System & A Hopeful, Humanist Solution
"Humanity ends up becoming one of the central themes of the film, and for all the stats and accomplished physicians the film employs, where it really shines is in the intimate stories of transformation. As a documentary subject, Yates is pure gold!" - Katie Walsh, Indiewire
October 5, 2012Sundance - 5 Things You Should Know About the Making of ESCAPE FIRE
"As millions of Americans descend further into a media fray wrought with glaring sensationalism and compulsive hyperbole surrounding the 2012 Presidential Election, the directing duo offer an unparalleled, unflinching, and—quite frankly—unflattering look at one of the most pressing contemporary American issues: our broken healthcare system." - Nate von Zumwalt, Editorial Coordinator at Sundance
October 5, 2012The Washington Post - Escape Fire; Critics Pick
"In this lucid look behind the scenes at hospitals, doctors’ offices and the most intimate corners of patients’ lives, the shortcomings and ways forward emerge in stark relief." - Ann Hornaday, Washington Post Critic's Pic
October 4, 2012Documentary Channel - Interview: Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke on “Escape Fire” and Why Obamacare Doesn’t Solve the Real Health Care Issue
"We spend twice as much as any other developed country on health care per person, but we’re 50th in lifespan. At almost every metric of health care, we’re at or near the bottom. So, statistically, and in reality if you talk to anyone, most people will say our system is deeply broken." - Matthew Heineman
October 4, 2012The Salt Lake Tribune - Movie review: ‘Escape Fire’ a rallying cry for health-care reform
Directors Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke talk to doctors frustrated with the system, insurance whistleblower Wendell Potter, and experts such as physicians Andrew Weil and Dean Ornish, who suggest solutions.
October 4, 2012Time-Out Chicago - A health-care doc makes its points in a compelling, nonpartisan manner.
“Healthcare is a difficult subject to make compelling onscreen—much less in a nonpartisan manner—which makes Escape Fire a documentary with major break-out potential.” - Time Out Chicago
October 4, 2012The New York Times - Pitting Drug Regimens Against Prevention
"Turns an unwieldy, Medusa-headed topic into a convincingly humane argument for change...This hard-hitting film leaves us finally more hopeful than despairing." - Jeannette Catsoulis, NY Times Critic's Pick
October 4, 2012Los Angeles Times: Review: 'Escape Fire' calls for drastic changes to U.S. healthcare
"Cogent, convincing, determinedly non-ideological, ESCAPE FIRE tells us that everything we think we know about that incendiary topic might be wrong." - Kenneth Turan, LA Times
October 4, 2012San Francisco Chronicle - 'Escape Fire': Diagnosing health care ills
The earnest and well-made documentary "Escape Fire" offers an X-ray of what's ailing the American health care system and prescribes a number of sensible solutions.
October 4, 2012New documentary takes aim at America's healthcare system
“Escape Fire” highlights the flaws in America’s healthcare system and features individuals trying to find a solution.
October 4, 2012Roll-Call: Escape Fire takes a look at the astronomical rise in the cost of health care and chronic disease in America
“We really wanted to highlight that there are solutions out there,” Froemke said. “We didn’t want to make a film just talking about the problem because many Americans are living the problem.” - Susan Froemke, Director & Producer
October 4, 2012Holistic Primary Care - “A Burning Desire to Fix the System” Catching Up with Matthew Heineman
"I think we really are at a tipping point in America right now. Everyone recognizes that the situation is unsustainable and that it needs to be fixed." - Matthew Heineman
October 3, 2012INDIEWIRE - “THOMPSON ON HOLLYWOOD," Exclusive Clip: 'Escape Fire'
The documentary details perverse economic incentives that drive American healthcare. "We’ve set up a reimbursement system that often pushes physicians and hospitals into doing more. It doesn’t reward doctors for doing a better job. It doesn’t reward them for keeping their patients healthy. It rewards them for delivering more care." - Matthew Heineman
October 3, 2012DAILY KOS - Big Pharma Psycho Department Creates Another Disease!
"Escape Fire" describes how health care in America has turned into a business, how the quest for money has hurt the quality of care provided to patients and how it has kept millions of us from having access to even mediocre care.
October 3, 2012MTV - NEW FILM 'ESCAPE FIRE' WILL BLOW YOUR MIND ON HEALTHCARE IN AMERICA
The film brings astounding light to how healthcare works in our country (and how shady it can be!) and how we can make improve it.
October 3, 2012Roger Ebert, Chicago Suntimes: Escape Fire "EXTRAORDINARY!" & "STUNNING!"
"Two thumbs Up! 3.5 out of 4 stars! Extraordinary! There's more money to be made in making people sick and healing them than in keeping them well in the first place. ESCAPE FIRE makes this argument with stunning clarity." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
October 2, 2012The Cycle/MSNBC - Guest Spot ESCAPE FIRE
Director Matthew Heineman joins the conversation during today's guest spot to discuss his documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare.
October 2, 2012FORBES - “Former CMS Administrator Don Berwick: ‘We're in Mann Gulch’”
I don’t blame anybody – they’re just doing what makes sense and we have to change what makes sense. - Don Berwick in Escape Fire
October 2, 2012Huffington Post - Escape Fire Director: How to Save Healthcare
"My job is to generate discussion," Heineman says. "I want to move people to think and ponder the question of their own healthcare. And it doesn't need to be political thinking." - Matthew Heineman
October 2, 2012The Phoenix - Review: Escape Fire, "A Condemnation of the US Health System"
The film breaks down the problems into comprehensible issues, addressing concerns like the denial of treatment, the proliferation of unnecessary procedures conducted for profit, the link between fast foods and obesity, and the influence of big pharma and the insurance companies in the prescribing of unnecessary medication.
October 1, 2012Marketplace - “Former health care executive pushes critical film”
The documentary "Escape Fire" will be in theatres around the country this week, making a case that the country’s profit-driven health care system isn’t necessarily making people healthier.
October 1, 2012New York Magazine - Escape Fire, Critics' Pick
Despairing and urgent, this cohesive documentary tackles the problem of American health care by focusing on its tendency to manage (and mismanage) disease through medication and expensive treatments instead of encouraging prevention through changes in lifestyle, diet, and alternative therapies.
October 1, 2012Huffington Post - Escape to the Movies This Weekend to See How We Can Create the World's Best Health System
Directors Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke set out to make a film that entertains, educates and offers hope, and they have succeeded. - Wendell Potter, former Director of Communications, Cigna
September 30, 2012LA Times: Filmmakers turn cameras on America's ailing healthcare system
'Doctored,' 'The Waiting Room' and 'Escape Fire' look at different angles of the system. Such films can influence legislation and how people vote, expert says.
September 29, 2012Washington Post - An interview with Matthew Heineman, director of ‘Escape Fire’
Our goal was to create a conversation around health care and create not a one-sided conversation. So many of these films are so partisan and so hyperbolic that you just preach to the choir. We wanted to create a conversation amongst all the stakeholders.
September 28, 2012Nash Health Policy - Nash on Health Policy
“The movie made me laugh and cry. I laughed at some of the absurdities of our system and the way some patients approached their interaction with us as caregivers. It made me cry with scenes from on board a military rescue plane bringing wounded soldiers directly from far away battlefields all the way to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in suburban Washington DC.” - Dr. David B. Nash, Founding Dean of the Jefferson School of Population Health
September 28, 2012Chicago Sun-Times September 28, 2012 “Tell me about acupuncture”
“ It argued that when we speak of "American health care," we should in fact be calling it "American sickness care." There's more money to be made in making healing sick people than in keeping them well in the first place.” - Roger Ebert, Sun-Times Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic
September 26, 2012Yahoo News-TakePart - ‘Escape Fire and ‘The Waiting Room’: Two Docs Solve the Healthcare Debacle
“One of the things that I learned in making the film is that the human body is amazing, we have this amazing capacity to heal, but our system isn’t set up to allow that to happen.” - Matthew Heineman
September 26, 2012Sundance Now Blog - Doctopia #17: Sick Nation - Can Healthcare Docs Help Remedy The System?
Susan Froemke and Matthew Heineman’s investigative documentary Escape Fire more successfully presents the argument that alternative and preventive care is the country’s best chance for survival.
September 26, 2012Health News Review - Noteworthy Healthcare Documentaries
The film closely follows the often heart-breaking challenges patients and clinicians face as they try to treat, and be treated, in a fragmented, costly, and often ineffective system.
September 26, 2012Daily Sundial - Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare is compelling and educational
The documentary was educational, compelling and well equipped with shocking statistics and real life experiences of those who feel they have been taken advantage of through America’s healthcare system.
September 26, 2012BIGSMACK - BIGSMACK Brings Heat to New Documentary “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare”
When you create a film as powerful and revealing as "ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare" (Roadside Pictures/Lionsgate), the new documentary that takes an unflinching look at the problems with the American healthcare system, you need a marketing campaign that is equally compelling.
September 24, 2012Every Day Health - ‘Escape Fire’ Sheds Light on Shadowy Healthcare System
The new documentary 'Escape Fire' takes on the 'badly broken' American healthcare system in an attempt to find a better way.
September 20, 2012Net Impact - Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
Net Impact speaks with Producer & Director Matthew Heineman
September 19, 2012Forbes - ESCAPE FIRE Artists Will Transform Healthcare
This year’s Sundance Film Festival included a documentary, Escape Fire, by Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated filmmakers focused on identifying the solutions to transform the U.S. healthcare system.
September 14, 2012KCET - Audio Q&A: 'Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare'
The film, a documentary about the state of healthcare in the U.S., led to a lively Q&A in with Dr. Kipper.
September 7, 2012KCNET - Previewing Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
“An awe-inspiring journey into the way average Americans and medical professionals alike are working on new and innovative ways to transform healthcare for the better.”
August 10, 2012Vineyard Gazette – Health Care Documentary Seeks to Shift Status Quo
“Health care is an incredibly complicated, polarizing, hyperbolic topic that was just gaining traction in the national spotlight.” - Matthew Heineman; director & producer of ESCAPE FIRE
June 28, 2012PBS/Democracy Now – Escape Fire Tackles U.S. Inefficiency, Spiraling Costs
"The film follows the dramatic human stories of people fighting to transform healthcare, from the highest levels of medicine, industry, government and even the U.S. military."
June 23, 2012Silverdocs - Escape Fire Wins React to Film Social Issue Award
“ESCAPE FIRE won the inaugural React to Film Social Issue Awards at this year’s Silverdocs for it’s “well-crafted and compelling documentary on a critical social issue, that has the greatest potential, through the medium of the film, to have an impact on that issue through reaching the broadest audience, particularly young people.”
June 21, 2012Huffington Post - The Health of Our Nation Hangs in the Balance
“We’ve been having the wrong debate, and it’s time for Americans to start focusing on the systemic problems and tangible solutions, or ‘escape fires,’ that are right in front of us.” – Matthew Heineman; director & producer of ESCAPE FIRE
June 6, 2012Birkshire International Film Festival - Escape Fire Wins Juried Prize
"ESCAPE FIRE wins the annual BIFF Juried Prize Award "
May 30, 2012Deadline Hollywood - Roadside Attractions To Distribute Escape Fire
“Before I saw Escape Fire, I thought the problems surrounding healthcare were unsolvable, but the film shows that we have the power to fix this.” - Howard Cohen, Roadside Attractions co-president
May 5, 2012The Herald Sun - Filmmakers Want to 'Change the Conversation' About Health Care
“I do strongly believe that no one goes into health care to do harm. But the system does not reward the best practices. – Matthew Heineman; director & producer of ESCAPE FIRE
May 5, 2012The Herald Sun - Award-Winning 'Escape Fire' Offers Health Care Solutions
"ESCAPE FIRE lays out the problems in the health care system as a 'disease management business,' with interviews with physicians and medical leaders as well as patients."
February 1, 2012Escape Fire, "Exceptional"
"Escape Fire presents clear, concise and irrefutable evidence that yes, our healthcare system is broken but yes, it can be fixed." - Mark Rabinowitz, film critic
January 26, 2012AFP - US Health System Under Microscope at Sundance
"ESCAPE FIRE: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare presents a picture of a sick, money-driven system, but argues that there is a way to reorient it towards patients while driving down costs."
January 26, 2012Variety - Escape Fire Offers Solutions
“Likened to a raging forest inferno by the talented nonfiction team of Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, the American health care system is diagnosed up one side and down the other…will stir the pulses of angry auds.”
January 26, 2012Slate - A Documentary That's Also A Horror Movie
“While everyone knows health care is broken, the filmmakers go further, portraying health care itself as an out of control system, one which, if left unfixed, will burn until it consumes everything in its path.”
January 25, 2012New York Magazine - Sundance Buzz Meter
“A documentary tackling an impossibly huge subject: the crisis in American health care, why it’s so off the rails (both in terms of cost and results), and — perhaps most important — what can be done about it.”
January 25, 2012Documenting Sundance - Review of Escape Fire
“A cinematic and rhythmic theatrical experience that captivates the imagination, inspires outrage at the failure of our leaders to change, yet as the title suggests, it also reminds us that the solutions to our crisis are at hand." – Steve Hyde; documentary professional
January 23, 2012Democracy Now Interviews Escape Fire's Dr. Nissen
"Healthcare has become such a huge business that the forces that don’t want change—the insurance industry, the hospital industry, even physician professional societies—have so aligned to keep the system as it is that it’s very hard to overcome that." - Dr. Nissen, chair of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.
January 20, 2012Filmmaker Magazine – Escape Fire Takes A Comprehensive Look At Our Healthcare System
"I think our country is still unclear on how to move forward, what is really wrong with healthcare, and how we can create a sustainable system for the future. These questions are at the heart of why we made Escape Fire." - Matthew Heineman, director & producer of ESCAPE FIRE
January 18, 2012The Wall Street Journal - 10 Hot Sundance Documentaries to Watch
"Veteran documentary producer and director Susan Froemke (Oscar nominated for 2002?s ”LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton”) working with Matthew Heineman, tries to do what Michael Moore attempted in “Sicko”: Solve America’s broken medical system." – Anthony Kaufman; film journalist & critic
January 18, 2012Flavorwire's 10 Most Anticipated Sundance Movies
"Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke’s documentary looks at the health care industry as it currently exists — both in American life and in the military… it’s ripe for a real discussion beyond the buzzwords that took over the debate."
January 16, 2012Real Screen - Heineman and Froemke's Doc Looks at America's Healthcare Crisis
“It gets into the human stories behind it all, and the forces trying to maintain the status quo. I think Washington needs to see this film, desperately.” - David Courier, senior programmer for the Sundance Film Festival
January 10, 2012Indie Wire - Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
"ESCAPE FIRE addresses what might be done to create a sustainable healthcare system for the future and hopes to inspire people to take control of their health and push for change once they understand the preserve nature of American medicine."
January 3, 2012All Things Documentary - 2012 Sundance Docs In Focus
“Despite the immensity of the topic, the filmmakers offer viewers a clear and determined solutions-oriented approach that clarifies the institutional deficiencies in America’s healthcare system and provides an inspirational way forward.”
January 1, 2012Sundance - Meet the Artists
"Directors Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke talk about their U.S. Documentary Competition film 'Escape Fire: The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare', and reveal some interesting and surprising facts about the U.S. healthcare system in the process."
November 30, 2011Highly Anticipated Escape Fire to Premier at 2012 Sundance Film Festival
“Destined to be hailed as the definitive film on American healthcare, ESCAPE FIRE offers a way out—a primer on how to save the health of a nation."
November 22, 2011Escape Fire to Receive Grant From Sundance Institute
"Sundance Institute today announced the 29 feature-length documentary films that will receive $582,000 in grants from the Documentary Film Program, including two films selected to receive grants from the Cinereach Project at Sundance Institute and one Time Warner Foundation Fellow.”
