You’re Invited: An In Person Screening of
This Open Mind is generously sponsored by
Rose and Allen Nelson
Registration is required for this free in person event
Please join UCLA’s Friends of the Semel Institute for a special in-person screening of SHUFFLE, the award-winning documentary from filmmaker Benjamin Flaherty, followed by a conversation with distinguished voices in addiction research, treatment, and mental health.
In Person at UCLA
Sunday, October 18th
Check in - 2:30
Program begins at 3pm
Melnitz Hall, 235 Charles E. Young N
SHUFFLE takes an unflinching, deeply personal look inside America’s addiction treatment industry. Drawing on his own experience in recovery, Flaherty follows three individuals navigating a treatment system in which getting out safely can be as difficult as getting in.
Filmed over three years, the documentary combines intimate vérité footage with investigative reporting to explore the human consequences of an addiction-treatment system shaped by insurance, profit, and policy. At its heart, however, SHUFFLE is a story about resilience, survival, and what happens when people are failed by the systems meant to help them.
The screening will be followed by a discussion featuring:
Benjamin Flaherty, Writer, Director, Producer & Executive Producer of SHUFFLE Winner of the Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW 2025
Helena Hansen, MD, PhD Professor and Interim Chair of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and Interim Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
A. Thomas McLellan, PhD, Distinguished addiction researcher and founder of the Treatment Research Institute; former Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
The program will also recognize the work of the UCLA Documentary Film Legal Clinic, which supports independent documentary filmmakers while training the next generation of entertainment lawyers.
We hope you’ll join us for an evening of film, conversation, and community around an urgent and deeply human issue.
Space is limited. Please RSVP soon.
We look forward to seeing you there.
To watch videos of our past Open Mind programs, please visit our YouTube Channel
