Guest Speakers: Screenwriter, Annie Beckett, and Director, Jim Abrahams
Starring Meryl Streep, this film is the true story of Lori Reimuller, who initially trusts the judgment of her young son’s doctors when she learns that he has epilepsy. As the boy’s health slides radically downhill, she plunges into her own research in frustration and desperation and learns about an alternative treatment called the Ketogenic Diet, devised long ago by a doctor from Johns Hopkins. The narrow-minded resistance she experiences from her son’s doctor includes a threat to take legal action to prevent him from being removed from the hospital. The eventual success of this struggle has changed epilepsy treatment around the world, and several minor characters are portrayed by people who have been cured by the Ketogenic diet. Running time: 94 minutes; 1997. Guest speakers (in person): Screenwriter Annie Beckett and director Jim Abrahams.