She sold millions, then vanished below poverty line. The '90s wellness queen Hollywood forgot.
In the ’90s, pop culture icon Susan Powter burst onto the scene with her signature bleach-blonde buzz cut and bold message of health and wellness. After conquering infomercials, becoming a New York Times bestselling author, hosting her own talk show, and seeing her face on thousands of products, she dramatically walked away from Hollywood and into obscurity. Crippling lawsuits with her business partners left her bankrupt, and she has since lived as a total recluse below the poverty line in Las Vegas, where the filmmaker ultimately finds her. This documentary explores the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of Susan Powter while asking what it will take to bring her back to audiences—and whether her message, Stop The Insanity, is still as relevant and powerful today as it was in the early ’90s.
Direction
Zeberiah Newman's patient hunt for a woman who doesn't want found
Editing
VHS-to-4K whiplash between '90s excess and present-day poverty
Director
Zeberiah Newman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Powter's 'Stop the Insanity!' infomercial ran over 100,000 times and was parodied on SNL before she ever appeared on network TV.
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