Image by Adam Stone, courtesy of El Dorado Film, LLC

A screening of the powerful short documentary If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis, which focuses on patients trying to get help in healthcare deserts as rural hospitals close. Followed by a conversation between the film’s Writer and Director, Film Professor Ramin Bahrani (CC '96) and Wafaa El-Sadr, Executive Vice President, Columbia Global; Director, ICAP at Columbia University; Director, Columbia World Projects; University Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine; Mathilde Krim-amfAR Chair of Global Health. Introduction by Sarah Cole, Interim Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts and Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature.

About the film

“When Ramin Bahrani was young, he would often accompany his father, a physician, to remote hospitals and clinics throughout North Carolina and Virginia. Now, decades later, rural hospitals around the country are closing at alarming rates, leaving community members without care. If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis is an exploration into the lives of people living in the rural South with limited or no access to healthcare.”

If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis was shortlisted for a 2024 Oscar for Documentary Short Film. It premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival, and its New York City premiere was at DOC NYC in 2023.

English | 2023 | 25 minutes

Co-presented by Columbia Global; the Division of Narrative Medicine, Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons; and Columbia University School of the Arts.