Can't Look Away

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Legend
OCOpen Captioned
Special Content
35mm
SFSensory Friendly

Can't Look Away

Q&A with filmmaker Matthew O'Neill and executive producer Kristin Powers

Can’t Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is a gripping documentary that exposes the dark side of social media and its devastating impact on young people. Directors Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz take viewers inside the high-stakes legal battle to hold tech companies accountable for the harm caused by their negligence and dangerous algorithms. Based on investigative reporting by Bloomberg News’ Olivia Carville, the film follows the Social Media Victims Law Center fighting for justice for families whose children suffered tragic consequences linked to social media use. As families seek justice, Can’t Look Away underscores the urgent need for industry reform and serves as both a wake-up call about the dangers of social mediaand a call to action to protect future generations.

Contains discussion of youth suicide and self-harm. Viewer discretion is advised.

"This is a vital piece of public-interest journalism clearly spelling out what we all vaguely intuited."
Phil Hoad, Guardian
"Can't Look Away is filled with convincing, well-documented instances of both teenage tragedy and companies prioritizing profit over well-being... It's searing, upsetting stuff."
Betsy Bozdech, Common Sense Media

PAST EVENTS

Q&A with filmmaker Matthew O'Neill and executive producer Kristen Powers
Monday, Oct. 20 2025, 7:00
This event is over. View all of our upcoming events.

  • Matthew O’Neill is an Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker and journalist. He most recently directed Surveilled for HBO and created the Emmy-winning HBO documentary news series AXIOS on HBO with Perri Peltz. Matthew and Perri also directed the 2019 HBO documentary Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America. Matthew has been making non-fiction films with Downtown Community Television Center, Inc, (DCTV) in NYC's Chinatown for the last 25 years. His earlier projects for HBO, ESPN, Disney+, Netflix, and FRONTLINE have focused on everything from the Egyptian Revolution to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American criminal justice system, and the School of American Ballet. His filmmaking has taken him to more than 50 different countries for films including Baghdad ER, In Tahrir Square, and Wartorn. He has received two Academy Award nominations, for Redemption and China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, and has been recognized with two Columbia DuPont Awards, a Peabody Award, an Overseas Press Club Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Director’s Guild Award nomination.
  • Kristin Powers is the deputy head of Media Editorial at Bloomberg, overseeing TV, Video, Design, and media partnerships. She leads the cross-platform team which connects media and the newsroom to showcase Bloomberg's best work across video, audio, print, digital, tv and live events. She is the Executive Producer of Can't Look Away.

This film is part of the Community Matters: Now More Than Ever series.



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