FINAL TEST SCREENING AN EMOTIONAL TIME

Following successful test screenings in October in Pittsburgh and last month at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., we showed the movie Wednesday, Dec. 3, for the last time before the Feb. 13 world premiere at the place where it all began: Zambarano Hospital in Pascoag, R.I. We went into production a year ago at this distant place on Wallum Lake, and we have been many places since then as the movie grew from a look at a Rhode Island institution to include a national and global look at tuberculosis today. More than 100 staff, patients and former patients came this afternoon to the auditorium -- the very same place that appears in the film several times, albeit in historical context of a half century and more ago.

We thanked everyone for their extraordinary cooperation in helping bring this together, and we recognized several former patients and residents who are in the movie -- and who made the trip to Wallum Lake today. And that list includes Emily Martineau and Sheila O'Brien, both of Harrisville, R.I., and the four people pictured in the photo below, none of whom had seen each other in years, left to right: John Lynes, of Pascoag; Drew Greene, of North Carolina; Barbara Parkos, of Newport; and Russ Denham, who summers in the Ocean State winters in Florida. There were tears and memories galore... we have touched many lives as we've been blessed by so many stories shared and now preserved forever...



And our special guest was the extraordinary Frank Beazley, who has been a patient at Zam for almost 42 years. With a round of applause and profound appreciation for this incredible man, we wished Frank an early 80th birthday (it's on Dec. 13)! That's Frank, in the photo below, wearing his Christmas hat:



Thanks, folks, and happy holidays!

-- Wayne