‘POV’ Spotlights an Attorney’s Legal Battle With Big Pharma Amid the Opioid Crisis in The Bitter Pill
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Overview
Premieres Monday, September 22, 2025 at 10pm on PBS; Streaming Available on the PBS App Until December 10, 2025
Trailer • Download Press Photos • #BitterPillFilmPBS
Brooklyn, N.Y. – August 26, 2025 – POV, the multi-Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning documentary series, spotlights The Bitter Pill, a powerful chronicle of justice, accountability, and resilience, directed by Clay Tweel (Finders Keepers, Gleason, Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults). Produced by Shannon Riggs (Andy Kaufman Is Me), Tim Grant (Mississippi River Styx), and Mary Rohlich (Atypical), the film follows the charismatic West Virginian plaintiff attorney Paul Farrell, Jr., as he wages a legal war against some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in a landmark battle fueled by personal stakes.
Timed to Opioid Awareness Day (September 21, 2025), The Bitter Pill will make its national broadcast premiere on POV on Monday, September 22, 2025 at 10pm (check local listings) on PBS. The documentary will be available to stream until December 10, 2025 on pbs.org, the PBS App, and the PBS YouTube Channel. Now in its 38th season, POV continues to serve as America's longest-running independent nonfiction series.
The Bitter Pill is set in Farrell’s hometown, Cabell County, West Virginia, a community at the epicenter of America’s opioid epidemic, where 20% of babies are born addicted to opioids. Farrell is determined to recover damages, bring justice to his neighbors, and rebuild a community ravaged by corporate greed. As his groundbreaking legal strategy gains national attention, the case escalates into the largest civil litigation in U.S. history. Through courtroom drama and behind-the-scenes access, director Clay Tweel’s The Bitter Pill captures the human cost and high stakes of a community’s battle against systemic failure.
“From day one, Paul and I had the same desire for this film - to bring transparency and accountability to those responsible for the devastation of this epidemic,” said Clay Tweel, director, The Bitter Pill. “I hope that the film helps to shine a light on a part of the story that people might have overlooked.”
“The Bitter Pill is a reminder of the catastrophic opioid epidemic that has affected millions of Americans over the past few decades,” said Chris White, Executive Producer, POV. “Director Clay Tweel's masterful account of Paul Farrell Jr.’s relentless quest to hold Big Pharma accountable underscores the urgent need for equitable access to care and systemic accountability to protect us all.”
The Bitter Pill made its world premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (2024). It was also featured at the Virginia Film Festival (2024), where it won the Programmer’s Choice Award, DC/DOX (2024), Santa Barbara International Film Festival (2025), and Sidewalk Film Festival (2024).
The Bitter Pill is a Fifth Season, Impact Partners, and Parkside Films co-production. The director is Clay Tweel, and the producers are Shannon E. Riggs, Tim Grant, and Mary Rohlich. The cinematographer is Ben Joyner, and the editors are Giacomo Ambrosini and Clay Tweel. The composers are Dan Romer and John Zarcone. The executive producers are Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Nina Fialkow, David Fialkow, Barbara & Eric Dobkin, Debbie L. McLeod, Jim & Susan Swartz, and Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary.
Raves include:
“a profound David and Goliath story”
— Katie Rich, The Ankler
“Heartbreaking, yet compelling.”
— Eric Altoff, Screen Comment
“...it’s crucial to see as it illuminates how much one judge and our judicial system can negatively affect the American people.”
— Aaron Goldstein, Spoiler Free Reviews
Photos
Credits
Director: Clay Tweel
Producers: Tim Grant, Shannon E. Riggs, Mary Rohlich
Cast/Participant: Paul Farrell Jr., Mike Fuller, Amy Quezon
Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Nina Fialkow, David Fialkow, Barbara & Eric Dobkin, Debbie L. McLeod, Jim & Susan Swartz, Erika Dilday and Chris White for American Documentary
Cinematographer: Ben Joyner
Editors: Giacomo Ambrosini, Clay Tweel
Composers: Dan Romer, John Zarcone
Language: English
Country: USA
Year: 2024
About the Filmmakers
Clay Tweel, Director, Editor, The Bitter Pill
Clay Tweel is a director/producer/editor with a passion for telling poignant and complicated character-based stories. His works include Finders Keepers, The Innocent Man, Heaven’s Gate: Cult of Cults, Out of Omah, and Gleason – the last of which was shortlisted for an Academy Award® and named one of the 5 best documentaries of 2016 by the National Board of Review. His projects have been distributed by Showtime, Netflix, HBO MAX, STARZ, and Amazon Studios while working closely with companies that include Open Road, Campfire Studios, and A24. Most recently, Clay premiered his latest film, Andy Kaufman Is Me, at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. He is currently directing a series for Netflix and another feature doc about Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin and his incredible comeback story to play in the NFL.
Shannon Riggs, Producer, The Bitter Pill
Shannon Riggs is a veteran producer of acclaimed films and series. In 2017, she co-founded Parkside Films with director Clay Tweel. Parkside’s work is known for its extraordinary access and character-driven, commercial appeal. Currently, Shannon is in post-production on the Damar Hamlin sports documentary Did We Win, and premiered the feature documentary Andy Kaufman Is Me at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, both directed by Tweel. Shannon’s upcoming films include legal docu-thriller The Bitter Pill premiering on POV in the fall of 2025, and Rough House co-production, Mississippi River Styx, co-directed by Tim Grant and AndyMcMillan. After graduating from USC Film School, Shannon began her career at Spike Lee’s legendary production company, 40 Acres and A Mule. Her early work in narrative development launched her into big-budget studio features and ingrained a cinematic, story-driven sensibility that has become her professional hallmark. Outside her work in film, Shannon is a mentor for women breaking into the business through The Sundance Institute, Women in Film, and Start With 8.
Tim Grant, Producer, The Bitter Pill
Tim Grant is a director and producer from southern Appalachia. His filmmaking explores economic, religious, and cultural tensions of the American South, often through portraiture. Tim co-founded the Charlotte, NC-based production company None Taken with director and photographer Andy McMillan after co-directing the award-winning feature documentary, Mississippi River Styx, Executive Produced by Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, and Jody Hill. The Bitter Pill is Tim’s latest film as producer and his third collaboration with director Clay Tweel, following Finders Keepers and Out of Omaha.
Mary Rohlich, Producer, Bitter Pill
Mary Rohlich is a film, television, and documentary film producer working under her new banner, Ikigai Owl Pictures, which is currently in post-production on an independent feature film, Paring. Rohlich was most recently Head of TV and Film for Priyanka Chopra Jonas' Purple Pebble Pictures. Prior to that, she served as an Executive Producer on the Netflix series Atypical. She has also produced several television pilots/series including The Good Doctor (Co-EP), Sneaky Pete (Producer), The Goldbergs (Co-Producer), and Breaking In (Co-Producer). On the feature side, she worked on Four Christmases (Associate Producer), and co-produced the hit comedies Horrible Bosses, Identity Thief, and Baywatch (EP). Along with The Bitter Pill, she has produced several notable documentary features including Gleason, Wrestle, Bill Nye: Science Guy, Finders Keepers, Print the Legend, Freakonomics, and Make Believe.
About
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Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied (1989), Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1992), Rabbit in the Room (1999), Of Civil Wrongs & Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story (2001), Made in L.A. (2007), American Promise (2013), Not Going Quietly (2021), While We Watched (2022), A House Made of Splinters (2022), The Last Out (2023) and the mini-series And She Could be Next (2020). Throughout its history POV has featured the work of award-winning, innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras, Nanfu Wang, Frederick Wiseman, Emiko Omori, Janus Metz Pedersen and Ava DuVernay. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. In 2024, Indiewire named seven POV films in its roundup of “The 50 Best Documentaries of the 21st Century”: Faya Dayi (2021), The Mole Agent (2020), Minding The Gap (2018), Cameraperson (2016), The Look of Silence (2015), The Act of Killing (2013) and After Tiller (2013). All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.
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