Darren Foster

Darren Foster

Director + Producer

American Pain

Darren Foster (he/him) is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning director and producer. His latest feature “American Pain” for CNN Films + HBO Max premiered at Tribeca 2022 and is the culmination of over a decade of reporting on the opioid epidemic. It explores the origins of the crisis through the incredible rise and fall of twin brothers from Florida who became the kingpins of America’s largest prescription drug trafficking network. Darren’s first feature documentary, Science Fair, won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance 2018, the Audience Award at SXSW, a Critic’s Choice Award and an Emmy. The film was acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films and Disney+ and is currently being adapted into a narrative feature by Elizabeth Banks and Universal Pictures.

Darren is co-founder of Muck Media, a production company based in Los Angeles and Lisbon. He is the co-creator and Executive Producer of Muck Media’s “Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller,” an immersive documentary series about global black markets and trafficking networks that premiered on National Geographic in December 2020. He was also an Executive Producer on the recent Muck Media production “Mucho Mucho Amor,” a feature documentary about the beloved Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado, which was released by Netflix in 2020.

Participating Sessions

CENTERPIECE FILM SCREENING: AMERICAN PAIN

American Pain tells the jaw-dropping story of twin brothers Chris and Jeff George who open up a chain of pain clinics in Florida where they hand out pain pills like candy.