EXCLUSIVE: Newly launched distribution company Obscured Releasing has acquired North American rights to Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter, the documentary about the fitness and nutrition powerhouse who became a sensation in the 1990s only to later disappear.
Obscured plans to release the Zeberiah Newman film theatrically on November 19 in Los Angeles with additional markets to follow. Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, who appears in the film, serves as an executive producer.
“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,” notes a description of the film. “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.”
The synopsis continues, “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.”
Curtis, who bears a striking resemblance to Powter, executive produces alongside John Redmann, Celia Aniskovich, and Chad Hines. In a statement, the Everything Everywhere All at Once star said, “Susan Powter’s story of personal, professional, spiritual reclamation of self is one I am proud to be a small part of.”
This marks the initial acquisition for Obscured Releasing, the company formed by RJ Millard and Bill Guentzler. “Obscured Releasing is proud to release Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter as part of its inaugural slate,” Millard and Guentzler said. “Filmmaker Zeberiah Newman brilliantly and delicately captures the energy and essence of Susan Powter through sensitive camerawork and intimate interviews, all while highlighting the inextinguishable power of Susan’s spirit and her fight to take back her name and career.”
Newman, a former producer of The Late Late Show with James Corden, previously directed Right to Try (2021), Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story (2023), and Unleashing Hope (2025), among other short films.
“Thrilled my first feature documentary has found a home with Obscured Releasing,” Newman commented. “Making this film became a trial of creativity, resourcefulness, and sheer endurance. I’m so proud and excited that audiences will get a chance to see Susan’s story and hear her message of survival and hope. ‘Stop the Insanity’ is a theme we need now more than ever.”
Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter premiered in June at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas in a sold-out screening. At a Q&A which I moderated afterwards, Newman talked about how he tracked down Powter, who had been laying low for years.
“I started looking for Susan about a year before I actually met her,” Newman explained. “I had a meeting with someone, and they were talking about fitness in the ‘80s. And then immediately I remembered Susan from the ‘90s and I just was like, ‘What happened to her? Where did she go? We haven’t heard anything. We don’t see anything.’ And so I started calling yoga studios and health farms and women’s groups in maybe Seattle, Portland. I had no idea she was in Las Vegas.”
Once she agreed to take part in the film, Powter didn’t hold back, revealing her struggles and how she became an Uber driver to eke out a living. At one point after she lost her fortune, she had to seek public assistance.
“I had to go to the welfare office, which I’m fortunate enough never to have had to go [to before] — and it’s not in any way a judgment or criticism,” Powter told the audience in Bentonville. “That in and of itself was a horrifying day.”
The documentary is produced by Zeberiah Newman, Leah Turner, and Michiel Thomas. The acquisition deal was negotiated by O’Brien Kelley of The Kelley Firm, PLLC on behalf of the filmmaker and Bill Guentzler and RJ Millard of Obscured Releasing.
Obscured Releasing describes itself as a “filmmaker focused film distributor… The company acquires theatrical, digital and physical rights to narrative, documentary, and animated features for distribution throughout the United States and Canada. Obscured collaborates and partners with filmmakers to develop audience interaction through festival play, robust publicity campaigns, marketing outreach, and thoughtful release windows and strategies.”