Official Trailer for ‘Shuffle’ Doc About the Addiction Treatment Industry

by Alex Billington
November 5, 2025
Source: YouTube

“I shouldn’t be telling you this…” Whoa. Abramorama has revealed the first official trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled Shuffle, made by filmmaker Benjamin Flaherty. This won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year. Through his own personal story, a filmmaker’s character-driven look inside the greedy, awful billion dollar addiction treatment industry where clients are bought & sold for their insurance policies, ushered into a system propelled by relapse rather than recovery. So infuriating and tragic. Insurance fraud everywhere! Always so bad, and not much is stopping it. Told through the lens of Flaherty’s own recovery journey, the documentary film has garnered critical acclaim and multiple festival awards since its SXSW premiere. The film has earned rave reviews from critics: “81 damning minutes of tight filmmaking, great storytelling, & riveting investigation.” Yep this looks like an important, eye-opening doc that might end up changing (and even saving) many lives.

Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Benjamin Flaherty’s doc film Shuffle, from YouTube:

In the wake of the opioid epidemic, insurance companies in America are now required to cover addiction and mental health treatment at the same reimbursement rate as other medical conditions, but without any of the regulations, a move that effectively monetized 40 million Americans struggling with these issues. Shot over the course of three years, Shuffle follows three individuals trapped by the insurance-fueled cycle of treatment fraud spreading across the country, whose future depend not on getting into treatment, but on getting out alive. A journey of discovery & transformation, these personal stories provide framework for a more public investigation with the help of an FBI informant, an insurance analyst and the former Executive Director of a Philadelphia-based treatment facility shuttered for fraud. Shuffle unravels a web of public policy and private interest preying on a desperate population for the sake of profit. Details here.

Shuffle is directed by American indie filmmaker Benjamin Flaherty, making his feature directorial debut after many other short films previously. It’s produced by Harris Fishman, Carra Greenberg, Scott Paskoff, Benjamin Flaherty. This initially premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year where it won the top prize. Abramorama will debut Shuffle in select US theaters starting early 2026. It will be screening this fall + on Kinema for awards season before it opens next year. For more info, visit the film’s official site.

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