Remote Area Medical

Remote Area Medical (RAM) was originally devised as a relief effort that enabled volunteer health professionals to administer to isolated communities, such as in jungle rainforests. Lately, however, RAM has become deployed in the U.S. in periodic efforts to speed-treat thousands of working poor, laid-off, and unemployed Americans who are without health insurance. Here, "remote" takes on a bitter, metaphorical meaning, pertaining to distance from opportunities and income as much as geography. Filmmakers Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman follow a three-day RAM operation set up in Bristol, TN (a rural environment, but hardly the rainforest), at the huge Bristol Motor Speedway, where the caregivers process victims of the coal-mining industry, deal with bad teeth (a lot of bad teeth), and treat the rare bobcat bite. Although set in the Volunteer State, the emphasis of this timely documentary is really on the broader state of modern medicine (or lack of access to it). Recommended. (C. Cassady)