Wed, Jun 28, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food
An Exclusive Theatrical Screening of a New Documentary Film
Director: Stephanie Soechtig
Producers: Ross Dinerstein, Kristin Lazure
The new movie Poisoned is based on the book by Jeff Benedict, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tiger Woods, The Dynasty and, just released, LeBron.
The film is an all-encompassing, infuriating, and at times even humorous roller-coaster ride that seeks to ask the question: “How did we get to a place with 15 government agencies in charge of the country’s food, yet none of them can keep its citizens safe?” It chronicles the events surrounding the worst food-poisoning epidemic in US history: the deadly Jack in the Box E. coli infections in 1993.
On December 24, 1992, six-year-old Lauren Rudolph was hospitalized with excruciating stomach pain. Less than a week later she was dead. Doctors were baffled: How could a healthy child become so sick so quickly? After a frenzied investigation, public-health officials announced that the cause was E. coli O157:H7, and the source was hamburger meat served at a Jack in the Box restaurant. During this unprecedented crisis, four children died and over seven hundred others became gravely ill.
Poisoned delivers a jarringly candid narrative of the fast-moving disaster, drawing on access to confidential documents and exclusive interviews with the real-life characters at the center of the drama—the families whose children were infected, the Jack in the Box executives forced to answer for the tragedy, the physicians and scientists who identified E. coli as the culprit, and the legal teams on both sides of the historic lawsuits that ensued.
Poisoned reveals the evolution and history of America’s food supply system, as well as the untold stories of the victims of notorious outbreaks, and spotlights high-profile criminal prosecutions for those responsible. Poisoned will go directly to the source, following the distribution trail from start to finish, examining where the process breaks down, as well as the bureaucratic red tape and collusion among lobbyists and lawmakers that work against addressing this life-or-death problem.
Jeff Benedict
Jeff Benedict is the bestselling author of Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat, and he’s an executive producer on the documentary. Benedict is the author of seventeen non-fiction books, including his latest book LEBRON, an instant New York Times bestseller. He also wrote the #1 bestseller Tiger Woods, the source of the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Tiger, which Benedict produced. He also wrote The Dynasty, the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots under Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady which is currently being made into a 10-part documentary series for Apple TV+. Benedict is a writer-in-residence at The Garde Arts Center.
William Marler
William (Bill) Marler, an accomplished attorney and national expert in food safety has become the most prominent foodborne illness lawyer in America and a major force in food policy in the U.S. and around the world. Over the last 30 years, Marler Clark,Inc., P.S., The Food Safety Law Firm, has represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused life altering injury and even death.
Bill began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the historic Jack in the Box E. outbreak.
Paul Mecurio, Moderator:
Paul Mecurio is an Emmy & Peabody Award winning comedian for his work on “The Daily Show w/Jon Stewart,” “The Colbert Report” and “The Late Show w/Stephen Colbert.”
He’s appeared on a wide range of other national television shows and his own comedy specials and appears regularly as a commentator/host on national news and sports outlets. Paul is an accomplished actor, hosts the critically acclaimed podcast “Inside Out w/Paul Mecurio,” and is an award-winning writer.