For American families who struggle to pay for their most important needs, getting and paying for good health care isn't just a matter of life and death; it's a matter of dollars and cents.
In director Mike Hogan's bleak thriller The Cost, this unbearable situation strikes an average yet troubled family - Penny (Sophie Howell), a mom who shares the same diagnosis of type 1 diabetes with her son Patrick, and Penny's husband Pete, whose love for his wife and child is as strong as his commitment to their survival.
With their scarce finances making it all but impossible to pay for the urgently needed insulin that will keep Penny and Patrick alive, Penny convinces a reluctant Pete to take the most dangerous yet necessary route to getting the money required for their medication: robbery.
As they hold up a group of innocent citizens, including - and in direct view of his daughter - a right-wing Trump supporter named Robert, Penny and Pete attempt to bargain with a greedy pharmacist who, like America's for-profit health care industry, sees his customers as dollar signs instead of human beings.
Though this crime spree may save Penny and Patrick's life, her freedom - and that of Pete's - may be on borrowed time. (While Sophie has already been cast as Penny, the other characters - as of now - have yet to be cast.)
As of this show's recording, Hogan and his co-producers on The Cost are planning to shoot a 15 minute proof of concept short film, and they're presently seeking $41,000 to do so. In addition, 20 percent of the movie's funding will benefit the diabetes awareness organization T1 International, a non-profit that works to make life-saving and affordable insulin treatment possible for millions of people worldwide.
The Cost is more than a short film for Hogan, who co-wrote its screenplay with co-producer Jerome Cleveland Keith and is already in the process of expanding it to a full-length feature. As a type 1 diabetic himself, Hogan has had to not just maintain a regular life despite his disease, but he's also had to confront the disheartening realities of being unable to afford medicine for his chronic condition.
Though his means of living with and getting treatment for his diabetes are obviously unlike those of the film's characters, Hogan puts them as clear representatives of the personal and monetary hardships that diabetics and others stricken by chronic illnesses experience on a daily basis.
Contribute to the film on IndieGoGo:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-cost-a-type-1-diabetes-thriller-short-film#/
Make a tax-deductible donation to The Cost:
https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=SLG869XFUMAE8
For more info on The Cost, visit Tall Order Productions’ web site:
https://www.tallorderproductions.com/
Follow Mike Hogan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hogan_mike/
Follow The Viewfinder Podcast on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ViewfinderPod
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheViewfinderPodcast
Music by Audionautix.com
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