Tonight: Cinema Series to screen “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”

The Cinema Series at Augusta University will honor the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks with two separate screenings of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” on Wednesday, Jan. 17.

Screenings will take place at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., both in the Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre. Both screenings are free to the general public.

Released in 2017, “Immortal Life” examines the life of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American cervical cancer patient whose cells have forever changed the course of medical research. In 1951, cell biologist Greg Otto Gey of Johns Hopkins University took cells from a biopsy of Lack’s cervical cancer. These so-called “HeLa” cells, taken without Lacks’ knowledge or consent, were the first ever be cultured and medically reproduced and are still widely used by medical researchers today.

The Emmy-nominated film, starring Oprah Winfrey, is based on Rebecca Skloot’s New York Times best-selling book by the same name.