Blythe Danner (left) stars as “Ruth” and Hilary Swank (right) stars as “Bridget” in Elizabeth Chomko’s What They Had, a Bleecker Street release. Credit: Bleecker Street

Blythe Danner, Robert Forster, Michael Shannon, and Hilary Swank star in a “new landmark Alzheimer's film [that] is heartbreaking, inspiring, funny and true,” according to AARP. What They Had “pulls back the lens from the patient—the subject of most Alzheimer’s films—to focus on caregivers.” Screening followed by a conversation with Writer and Director Elizabeth Chomko, Producer Albert Berger ’83, and Hilary Brougher, Film.

After her ailing mother wanders off during a blizzard, Bridget returns to her childhood home in Chicago, accompanied by her rebellious college-age daughter. Forced to referee between her father’s stubborn insistence that his wife remain at home and her equally determined brother’s efforts to place her in a sought-after “memory care” facility, Bridget struggles to make sense of a lifetime of family conflict. With her mother’s decline becoming increasingly obvious, long-simmering resentments make an already difficult decision close to impossible. What They Had is an intimate and tender story of a challenge faced by many families.

Co-presented by Columbia Narrative Medicine, Columbia School of Social Work, and Mailman School of Public Health.

“Blythe Danner and Hilary Swank Soar in Caregiving Movie ‘What They Had,’” AARP, October/November 2018.

Check-in will begin one hour prior to start time. Seating is limited and first come, first served. Advance registration does not guarantee seating; early arrival is suggested.