Texas Medical Center to screen movie about the late James Ragan Sept. 20

The Rice community is invited to the Texas Medical Center’s screening of “Until 20,” the award-winning film about former Rice student James Ragan, who died of cancer at age 20 in 2014.

The program will be held Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at TMCx, 2450 Holcombe Blvd., Suite X. After the screening, some members of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center medical team that treated Ragan will participate in a panel discussion about him. Other panel participants will be the film’s director and producer, Geraldine Moriba, and Rice Associate Professor Luis Duno-Gottberg, chair of the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, who was a master at Duncan College when Ragan was a resident there.

At age 13, Ragan developed a rare form of bone cancer, osteosarcoma. While he was undergoing treatment, he and his sister, Rice alumna Mecklin Ragan ’13, created the Triumph Over Kid Cancer Foundation to raise money for pediatric cancer research.

The documentary shows how Ragan, a philosophy major who had been a member of Rice’s golf team, viewed life, especially during his final year when the director spent time with him at his family’s home in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the hospital. The website for the film notes that “James Ragan teaches us how to win at living and how to make the most of every day. ‘Until 20’ is about facing fear and having the courage to love deeply.”

Among the awards “Until 20” has received are the Hiscox Audience Award for Courage and the Audience Award for Marquee Feature, both at the 2015 Austin Film Festival, and the Jury Prize for Best Historical Feature Documentary at the 2016 San Antonio Film Festival.

The screening is free but seating is limited. Register to attend at tmcscreeningofuntil20.eventbrite.com. Donations at the screening will go to the Triumph Over Kid Cancer Foundation.