Film Club: Partners of the Heart
Each month we present a film from our Madelyn Osur Film Library on the screen at the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film office inside the Lincoln School. These screenings are free and open to the public with a small suggested donation of $5.
Doors Open at 6:30 pm
Film Begins at 7:00 pm
All seating for Film Club is first come, first served. Please let us know you are coming, so we can plan for this event. There is no need to print or bring your ticket with you to the event. Just arrive 15 minutes before the film screening begins to secure your seat.
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In honor of Black History Month, we are bringing something off our library shelf from our 2002 Festival, following the story of Vivien Thomas a leading cardiac pioneer and educator of two generations of the United States’ premiere heart surgeons. This film is also from an alumni filmmaker with titles from past festivals like First Lady of the Revolution, No Evidence of Disease, and from the 2019 Festival, Scattering CJ.
PARTNERS OF THE HEART
Directed by Andrea Kalin and Bill Duke
In 1944, two men at Johns Hopkins University Hospital pioneered a groundbreaking procedure that would save thousands of so-called blue babies’ lives. One of them, Alfred Blalock, was a prominent white surgeon. The other, Vivien Thomas, was an African American with a high school education. Partners of the Heart tells the inspiring, little-known story of their collaboration. Blalock recognized Thomas’ talents when the younger man came inquiring after a hospital janitor’s job. But though Blalock came to treat Thomas with tremendous respect in the lab, the two men were rarely treated as equals in the outside world. Over time, Thomas would go on to train two generations of the country’s premier heart surgeons. In 1976, more than three decades after the first blue baby’s life had been saved, Johns Hopkins finally formally recognized Thomas’ extraordinary achievements, awarding him an honorary doctorate. Narrated by Morgan Freeman.
