If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis / FIlm School Radio interview with Director Ramin Bahrani

Rural hospitals around America are closing at alarming rates, leaving communities without care. Since 2005 more than 190 rural community hospitals, mostly in the South, have closed. In this documentary If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis Oscar-and Emmy-nominated director Ramin Bahrani visits Appalachia, where American communities are left with limited or no access to healthcare. Explore the rural healthcare crisis in the South through the eyes of those struggling in it and the dedicated doctors trying to reach them. If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare highlight the challenges faced by Rural American communities today intimately through the lens of individuals, families, and tight-knit towns, underscoring the urgent need for systemic change in the national healthcare, climate and mental health systems. If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis capped off the 2023 Winter Season for INDEPENDENT LENS, the award-winning PBS documentary anthology series presented by ITVS. Director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, 99 Homes) joins us for a conversation on the existential and personal inspiration for the film, traveling around Appalachia in the Health Wagon with Dr. Teresa Tyson and Dr. Paula Hill-Collins and how the heartbreaking stories told by the people living without access to affordable healthcare has impacted his life. For more go to: pbs.org/if-dreams-were-lightning Support affordable healthcare @thehealthwagon.org