Mars Hill University Hosts WNC Premiere of Partners In Health Documentary

March 27, 2019

The global health movement is the focus of a documentary that will make its western North Carolina premiere at Mars Hill University on April 2, 2019. “Bending the Arc: Paul Farmer and Partners In Health,” which debuted at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, follows the aid organization Partners In Health from its beginnings in 1980s Haiti to its recent work in West Africa. The Mars Hill showing is part of the university’s Presidential Lecture and Performance Series and is cosponsored by Mars Hill’s Hester Center for Peace & Justice and by Healthy State. The film will be shown at 4 p.m. in Moore Auditorium. Admission is free.

Subtitled “A story of the friendship that changed the world of global health care,” Bending the Arc is a documentary about a team of young people—Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, Ophelia Dahl—whose charitable medical work 30 years ago ignited a global health movement. Their goal was simple but daring: to make high quality health care available to everyone, even in the world’s poorest countries. Fighting entrenched diseases, political and bureaucratic machinery, and the existing charity and medical establishments, these crusaders took their fight from the village to the world stage, to ensure that health care is a right for all, and that geography should not determine destiny.

Dr. Farmer’s sister, Peggy Farmer, will introduce the film and discuss her experiences with her brother and his work in Haiti and Rwanda. Mars Hill University’s director of community engagement, Deb Myers, will discuss the connections with the Center for Community Engagement’s work in Haiti.

Peggy Farmer is an internationally known speaker, wellness consultant and facilitator with a passion for self-empowerment and total well-being. She is the former director of the Pardee Hospital Health Education Center and president of the American Heart Association. Farmer created Self Mastery International, an organization committed to igniting human potential and empowerment, so individuals and organizations can co-create innovative, practical solutions to challenges in the workplace, namely communication and stress management. She is certified in emotional intelligence, intrinsic health coaching, communication, stress management, meditation, Reiki Master and multi-faceted approaches to wellness programming with WELCOA, the Wellness Council of America, and other wellness modalities.

The Presidential Lecture and Performance Series complements Mars Hill University’s emphasis on the liberal arts by bringing distinguished and knowledgeable individuals to lecture on a wide range of topics and to provide high quality performances in the cultural arts. Opinions expressed are those of the individual speakers and performers, and do not reflect the views of Mars Hill University.