A Billion Lives

A Billion Lives 2016

8.00

In 20 years’ time, there will be nearly 1.6 billion smokers around the world. Approximately 70% of smokers want to quit. The United Nations’ World Health Organisation expects a billion people will die prematurely from smoking this century. The products their doctors recommend are rarely effective and many are trapped. A new vapour technology was invented to give smokers a successful way to quit. But it was quickly demonised, and even banned in many countries. A perfect storm is brewing between smokers trying to quit, government regulators, and health charities funded by the powerful pharmaceutical industry. Director Aaron Biebert travelled across four continents interviewing doctors, scientists, and others working to save a billion lives. What he found was profound government failure, widespread corruption in the public health community and powerful subversion by big business.

2016

Cold Turkey

Cold Turkey 1971

6.22

Reverend Brooks leads his small Iowa town in a contest to stop smoking for a month. But some tobacco executives don't want them to win, and try everything they can to make them smoke. If townspeople don't go nuts from wanting a cigarette, or kill each other from irritation and frustration, they will win a huge prize.

1971

Manufacturing Ignorance

Manufacturing Ignorance 2020

7.60

Tobacco, climate change, pesticides,... Never has scientific knowledge seemed so vast, detailed and shared. And yet it appears to be increasingly challenged. It is no longer surprising to see private corporations put strategies in place to confuse the public debate and paralyze political decision-making. Overwhelmed by excess of information, how can we, as citizens, sort out fact from fiction? One by one, this film dismantles the workings of this clever manoeuvre that aims to turn science against itself. Thanks to declassified archives, graphic animations and testimonies from experts, lobbyists and politicians, this investigation plunges us into the science of doubt. Along with a team of experts (philosophers, economists, cognitive scientists, political men, or even agnotologists), we explore concrete examples of doubt making and try to understand the whole process and the issues behind it.

2020

Nicotine - A Drug with a Future

Nicotine - A Drug with a Future 2020

5.80

The number of smokers in Europe is declining, yet the tobacco industry is still making considerable profits. Electronic innovations such as e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters play a significant role in this. Both are said to be far less harmful than conventional cigarettes. But is the aromatic steam really not a danger to our health?

2020

Move Fast & Vape Things

Move Fast & Vape Things 2021

6.00

Two Stanford graduate students had an inspired idea and an idealistic mission: create an e-cigarette that would help millions of people stop smoking. How did the founders of Juul lose their way and end up accused of addicted a whole new generation?

2021

Run That Shit!

Run That Shit! 2021

1.50

A Satanic cult lures a no-name rapper into stealing an enchanted chamber pot from his estranged friend and now superstar rapper, Big Tobacco.

2021