The Centre Film Festival will host a screening of Of Medicine and Miracles at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 5, 2022, at the historic Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg, Pa.
This feature documentary, directed by Academy-Award winner Ross Kauffman and produced by Academy-Award nominee Robin Honan, highlights the incredible story of Philipsburg’s Emily Whitehead, Dr. Carl June, Dr. Stephan Grupp, and the teams at Penn Medicine and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia coming together to make medical history with the development of CAR T-cell therapy.
Of Medicine and Miracles premiered in June 2022 at the Tribeca Festival and has so far won five awards at film festivals across the United States — Best of the Fest (Chagrin Film Festival), Best Documentary Feature & Audience Favorite (Port Townsend Film Festival), Best Feature Documentary (Rhode Island International Film Festival), Best Documentary (Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival).
For their role in documenting their daughter’s cancer journey through a series of home videos, the Centre Film Festival will be honoring Tom and Kari Whitehead as the second annual recipients of the Chandler Living Legacy Award.
Named for Curt and Stacie Chandler, the Centre Film Festival's Chandler Living Legacy Award honors an exemplary Pennsylvania native or Pennsylvania State University alumnus who has made distinguished contributions to the film, television, and media arts and to social justice movements. Last year’s winner was Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning actor, writer, producer and Penn State alum Keegan-Michael Key.
"This award is such an incredible honor," says Tom Whitehead, "Our family worked on this film for over eight years with an amazing film team in the hopes that this awareness will help other families have the same outcome that we have had and to help make these new less toxic cancer treatments more globally accessible. We also wanted to show how much support we had during that time from so many people which helped us have that success. We are over-the-top excited for the premiere festival screening of our film on November 5th at our hometown Rowland Theatre!"
The award ceremony is free to attend and will begin with a reception at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 6, 2022, at The State Theatre in State College, Pa.
Tickets to the screening on Saturday, November 5, 2022 are priced at $8.00, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the Emily Whitehead Foundation. Students are admitted at no charge. For further information about the Centre Film Festival, visit centrefilm.org.
Press contacts:
Amanda Hunt
amanda@emilywhiteheadfoundation.org
Pearl Gluck
pearl@centrefilm.org