MORE THAN MEDICINE
Synopsis
Four brave trailblazers navigate the precarious road to becoming the first licensed psychedelic-assisted therapists in America. Over seven years, they undergo dramatic transformations as they experience the drugs themselves and learn to sit for clients. Against the backdrop of a nation still grappling with the acceptance of marijuana, these pioneers confront legal, social, and personal challenges, risking everything to unlock the hopeful potential of psychedelics for their clients.
Our film follows four clinicians on the front lines of change:
A Boston police officer fighting first-responder suicide
A highly trained ketamine therapist in Oakland confronting drug war legacies
A Portland facilitator building a psilocybin center with indigenous roots
A Texas therapist with a disability whose life is transformed after ayahuasca
Their stories reveal what psychedelic therapy looks like in real lives, with real caregivers, in real communities, right now.
Why This Film Matters
Every eleven minutes, someone in America dies by suicide. Millions are struggling with trauma, depression, and anxiety — and too many are out of options.
Film Status
MORE THAN MEDICINE is 90% complete. We were racing toward the finish line last summer — and then the FDA unexpectedly turned down MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.
That decision stopped us in our tracks.
Instead of rushing to completion, we took a hard look at the film. We knew we needed to address the biggest question now facing psychedelic therapy:
Why, even with life-changing results, did the government say no?
That moment changed the direction of MORE THAN MEDICINE. We expanded our focus to include the "why" behind the resistance to psychedelic therapy — misinformation, stigma, safety concerns, and the politics of approval.
How You Can Help
We are raising funds to:
Complete the edit with new material on the FDA decision
Finish music, color, sound, and licensing
Launch a national impact campaign — 20 cities in year one
Screen privately with decision makers — at police departments and legislatures
Screen at colleges and universities — with social work and medicine programs
Educate the public and reduce fear around psychedelic therapy
Please consider donating to the film to help bring psychedelic therapy to our people.
Stay updated on the latest
Meet The Team
Directors: Kerthy Fix and Paul Kloss
Editors: Katrina De Vera, George O’Donnell, Alex Bayer, and Toby Shimin
Additional Editors: Jill Woodward and Tom Patterson
Assistant Editors: Anya Swanson, Shilpa Kunnapillil, Meranda Yslas, and Jenn Stamps
Director & Producer
Kerthy Fix
Kerthy Fix is a New York–based director and producer of documentary and nonfiction film. She directed WHO TOOK THE BOMP? LE TIGRE ON TOUR(Oscilloscope), which premiered at SXSW and MoMA, and STRANGE POWERS: STEPHIN MERRITT AND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS, winner of Best Documentary at Outfest. Her latest feature, MORE THAN MEDICINE: THE RISE OF PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY — a four-person ensemble documentary shot across five states over eight years — follows the emergence of psychedelic-assisted therapy and premieres in Fall 2026. Fix has also produced acclaimed feature docs including A SMALL GOOD THING (Kino Lorber) and FLYING: CONFESSIONS OF A FREE WOMAN (Sundance Channel/BBC/ARTE), and has spent more than a decade field- and story-producing nonfiction series for MTV, Discovery, National Geographic, and TLC, where she's known for building trust with cast members and shaping story around sensitive, deeply human subjects.
Director &
Director of Photography
PAUL KLOSS
Paul Edward Kloss is a veteran Director of Photography and Camera Operator known for bringing compelling visual narratives to life across film and television. With credits ranging from high-profile true crime re-creations and travel/food series to narrative shorts and music videos, he has shot for major networks including ABC, Investigation Discovery, Bravo, BBC, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and The Travel Channel. A collaborative filmmaker, Paul also directs, produces, and edits independent feature documentaries, including MORE THAN MEDICINE: THE RISE OF PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY, STRANGE POWERS: STEPHIN MERRITT AND THE MAGNETIC FIELDS, and WHO TOOK THE BOMP? LE TIGRE ON TOUR.
Editor
Katrina De Vera
Katrina De Vera is a documentary editor who was born and raised in South Texas to Filipino immigrant parents. Her passion for editing stems from a penchant for collaboration and a deep curiosity for exploring the human condition. She edited WHO WE BECOME, a coming-of-age documentary following the lives of three young Filipino Americans living through the height of the pandemic. The film is distributed by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing and is currently streaming on Netflix.
She also edited the intimate political portrait A RUN FOR MORE which broadcast on PBS as part of the Reel South Series.
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Other work includes the short film BRING THEM HOME, which was supported by the Pulitzer Center and released by The Washington Post. Katrina is a 2022 Karen Schmeer Editing Fellow. She is drawn to character-driven narratives, and will always have a soft spot for stories that feel close to home. Katrina is currently based in the Bay Area.
Editor
George O’Donnell
George O'Donnell is an award-winning documentary film editor with over two decades of experience editing historical and verité feature documentaries, series, and shorts. His recent work includes editing BABY DOE (2025, Impact Partners), a feature documentary directed by Jessica Earnshaw set to premiere in competition at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. He recently edited the short film IT’S OK (2024, The New Yorker) directed by Oscar nominated filmmaker, David France. He edited JACINTA (2021, Hulu/ABC), which won the Tribeca Film Festival's Best New Director Award. George's extensive career includes editing for PBS’s AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, as well as FRONTLINE, POV, and INDEPENDENT LENS. He’s worked with renowned directors like Ken Burns and Rachel Dretzin contributing to award-winning projects like JACKIE ROBINSON, KINSEY, and THE JEWISH AMERICANS. He also directed, edited and produced, COLLEGE BOYS LIVE, which won the Emerging Talent Award at OUTFEST 2009. George is a graduate of Bard College and resides in both Germantown and Brooklyn, New York.
Editor
Alex Bayer
Alex Bayer, ACE is a New York based documentary editor and director. His work has been nominated for multiple Primetime Emmy Awards, including one win for Best Documentary Series (100-FOOT WAVE, Season 3) along with nominations for the HPA Awards and ACE Eddie Awards. Other works have been shortlisted for the Academy Awards, Official Selections for the Sundance, DOCNYC and Tribeca Film Festivals. Alex is also a performer and composer of music, with several of his pieces being featured in his films. He has an insatiable love for history, an irreverent sense of humor, two cats and a dog.
Consulting Editor
Toby Shimin
Editor Toby Shimin began her film career as a sound editor and switched to picture editing when she cut THE CHILDREN’S STOREFRONT, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Since then, she has edited numerous films that have premiered at Sundance, including, Peabody Award winning HOW TO DANCE IN OHIO, A LEAP OF FAITH, MARTHA & ETHEL, MISS AMERICA, and EVERYTHING’S COOL. Her Sundance Audience Award winning films include, OUT OF THE PAST, THIS IS HOME, which was also nominated for an Emmy award in editing, and BUCK, which was short-listed for an Academy Award.
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Toby received the prestigious Documentary Editing Award at the 2018 Woodstock Film Festival for HBO’s 32 PILLS: MY SISTER’S SUICIDE. ERNIE & JOE: CRISIS COPS won a Jury Prize at SXSW where it premiered in 2019 and an Emmy for outstanding editing. THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER: FEATURING BRANDI CARLILE won the audience award at its SXSW premiere, and won the Documentary Editing Award at the 2022 Woodstock Film Festival. In 2024, the series ONE SOUTH: PORTRAIT OF A PSYCH UNIT premiered on HBO and in 2025, the Netflix short, THE QUILTERS was shortlisted for an Academy Award and nominated for an Emmy. Toby’s most recent film, JIMMY & THE DEMONS, premiered at Tribeca and is currently making the festival circuit. Among the films that Toby has served as consultant and supervising editor are LOVE GILDA, JACINTA, STORM LAKE, ALWAYS IN SEASON, PAY OR DIE and the 2023 Oscar nominee, THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT. She has served as an advisor for the Edit and Story labs at Sundance, Chicken & Egg, and the Saul Zaentz Story Lab and is on the advisory boards of Full Frame and The Jacob Burns Film Center.
Additional Editor
Jill Woodward
Jill Woodward is a documentary editor and filmmaker. She enjoys working on contemporary and historical topics that get conversations started and enhance the public discourse.
Features she edited include 1946: THE MISTRANSLATION THAT SHIFTED CULTURE, Audience Award winner at its premiere at the 2022 DOC-NYC film festival, BEYOND THE GAZE: JULE CAMPBELL’S SWIMSUIT ISSUE, which screened at DOC-NYC in 2024, and THIS IS PARIS, about Paris Hilton, selected for the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020.
She recently completed editing the short film, COACH, about women’s collegiate rowing.
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Series work includes CASEY ANTHONY: WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, for Peacock Network, and a five-part series, BREAKING LIFE, for the Olympics Channel, as well as a 4-part series, THE JUDD FAMILY: TRUTH BE TOLD for Lifetime.
She started her career at CNN, where she edited coverage that won Emmy, Headliner, Dupont, and Loeb Awards. She transitioned into documentaries as an assistant on the Netflix documentary GET ME ROGER STONE, and was associate editor on the film DIVIDE & CONQUER: THE STORY OF ROGER AISLES, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017.
She is a member of the Alliance of Documentary Editors.
Additional Editor
Tom Patterson
Tom Patterson is a three-time Emmy nominated editing genius who has worked for every single streaming company except Fubo and Twink. He lives in New York but who knows for how long.
Assistant Editor
Shilpa Kunnappillil
Shilpa Kunnappillil is a documentary editor and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Most recently, she was an editor on the feature documentary HOMEGROWN, which premiered in the Critic’s Week section of the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and on the feature documentary A BEAST TOUCH THE MOUNTAIN, which premiered at the 2025 Saint Augustine Film Festival. Previously, she has worked as an associate and assistant editor on documentaries that have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, DOCNYC, etc. She is a 2024 Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellow and has also received support from Firelight Media and NeXt Doc for her directing work.
Assistant Editor
Anya Swanson
Anya Swanson is a film editor and assistant editor whose work spans narrative, documentary, and branded storytelling. She has collaborated with filmmakers, production companies, and creative teams on projects including THE WAY OF THE WIND, I’LL BE THERE, and REN FAIRE, bringing a thoughtful and detail-driven approach to every stage of post-production.
Her assistant editing experience includes working alongside acclaimed editors and directors, as well as for companies including Google, IBM, McLaren, and UFC, where she contributed to shaping stories from initial footage through final delivery.
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With a background rooted in both the technical and creative sides of post-production, Anya has developed a deep understanding of editorial storytelling, pacing, and collaboration.
Currently based in Austin, Texas, Anya continues to explore stories that center on compelling characters, emotional authenticity, and the power of visual narrative.
Assistant Editor
Meranda Yslas
Meranda Yslas is an emerging documentary film editor with experience as a video journalist. She is currently working on a docu-series for ESPN.
Previous credits include Associate Editor on SABBATH QUEEN, directed by Sandi DuBowski, and Assistant Editor at CNN and Gidalya Pictures.