Now Is the Time is an intimate documentary told from the perspective of a clinical team on the front lines of ALS care. Over the course of a year, the film follows one patient, Kathryn Lubniewski, and the clinical team fighting beside her.
Leading the charge is Dr. Terry Heiman-Patterson, a pioneer of the multidisciplinary ALS clinic model now recognized as the standard of care. Through the team’s eyes, we witness the emotional weight, quiet heroism, and daily complexity of guiding families through one of the most devastating diagnoses in medicine.
The fight does not end in the exam room. As the American healthcare system becomes increasingly impersonal, the kind of human care ALS patients depend on is beginning to slip away. With a generation of devoted clinicians nearing retirement, Now Is the Time asks a critical question: Who will carry this level of care forward? Weaving together the patient’s intimate story and larger systemic realities, the film becomes both a portrait of compassion and a reflection on what may be lost if that standard of care disappears.