Take Care of Maya

In 2016 ten year old Maya Kowalski is brought to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in Florida in severe pain. Her family explains a diagnosis of complex regional pain syndrome and a history of ketamine treatment. The hospital finds this suspicious and accuses her mother, Beata, of Munchausen by proxy. Maya is placed in state custody and kept from her family for three months. Beata Kowalski takes her own life before it ends. Henry Roosevelt directs. The documentary premiered at Tribeca in 2023 and went to Netflix that June. Its power comes from a contested source: the family recorded everything. Phone calls, hospital visits, Beata's voicemails. The film uses them directly. What happened afterwards is larger than the film. In November 2023 a jury awarded the Kowalskis more than 200 million dollars, the figure was later reduced, and in October 2025 a Florida appeals court threw out the judgment and opened the way to a new trial. The case the documentary describes is not closed. Who it is for: viewers who follow documentaries on medical ethics, child protection systems and institutional power. Who it is not for: the film stands plainly with the family and gives the hospital's reasoning very little room. If you want both sides argued, you will not get them here.