Wilmington International Film Festival features Shuffle, exposing addiction treatment fraud

“Shuffle” will premiere at the Wilmington International Film Festival on October 10, followed by a Q&A. (Photo courtesy Wilmington.film)

The Wilmington International Film Festival will make its debut October 9–12, and one of its centerpiece films is Shuffle, a documentary that exposes the darker side of the addiction treatment industry.

Shot over three years, Shuffle follows individuals caught in the cycle of addiction treatment fraud, where financial incentives often outweigh genuine care. Through raw interviews and investigative reporting, director Benjamin Flaherty blends his own recovery journey with stories from patients, families, and industry insiders, exposing how a system meant to heal can instead exploit.

Directed by Benjamin Flaherty, the film will screen on October 10, followed by a Q&A that connects its themes to the local community.

For Flaherty, the story began with his recovery.

“I was probably, you know, seven months sober when I first heard about this. I received great treatment, great care, the tools I needed to continue,” he said. “And it was a really positive, transformative experience in my life. So I heard this story, and the story was people being taken advantage of, and it was crushing to me on an emotional level.”

That discovery sparked a years-long investigation into how financial incentives can fuel cycles of exploitation in treatment.

“Once I realized the financial mechanism behind it, that’s when I really got scared, because I realized, oh, this isn’t just people deciding to treat people poorly. This is people with a financial incentive to potentially do that.”

The film took three and a half years to shoot, with editing stretching the project into six years.

“The real challenge in the film was the editing process,” Flaherty explained. “How to tell these stories and how to talk about this issue in a way that an audience can hear it and understand it, and also enjoy it as a film, which is tough subject matter.”

Flaherty emphasized that trust was the foundation of his work with participants.

“It really is about the trust between myself and whoever the participant may be in that instance, I was not here to judge anyone. My interest was in understanding people and what happened and how this works,” he said.

He hopes audiences in Wilmington walk away more alert and empowered when it comes to recovery.

“What I really think is that people can empower themselves to be their own best advocates when it comes to finding treatment,” he said. “We’ve put together both on our website, www.stoptheshuffle.com, a list of tips and resources, things to keep in mind when they’re on the phone. So we’d like to provide information that helps people get safer treatment.”

That broader mission extends into how the film is presented at festivals. Flaherty said the Wilmington screening will be followed by a conversation aimed at connecting the story to locals.

“We’ll have a Q and A after the film, we like to bring it home locally to the people that are doing the work in the community. Whether that’s featuring a nonprofit or an author, a journalist, we like to bring it home and have a discussion after the film about what are the issues, and how do they relate to Delaware.”

As Wilmington launches its first international film festival, Shuffle brings both urgency and humanity to the lineup. It’s a film about survival, vulnerability, and the systems that too often exploit people at their most desperate.