UAB turns Heroes and Healers recognition night into movie premiere event

The Morris K. Sirote Theatre traded its usual campus polish for something closer to a downtown premiere night, with a red carpet, velvet rope and the first public showing of three short Heroes and Healers films. UAB turned the third annual recognition event into a cinematic launch, and Birmingham got the kind of movie-theater energy that rarely shows up outside the city’s festival calendar.

The 2026 Heroes and Healers event, presented by UAB Trauma and the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, honored burn survivor Carmen Knight and trauma survivor Jacob Smith. KD Hill, the 2024 honoree, emceed the night. UAB’s arts-and-events listing said guests were invited to dress as glamorously as they wished, with black tie optional, and the package included light hors d’oeuvres, beverages, red carpet photos and the world premiere of the 2026 short films. Tickets were set at $50, with an earlier $40 early-bird price.

That presentation mattered because UAB did not treat the films like a side element to a banquet. The short documentary-style pieces, one for each honoree, were the reason the room gathered in the first place, and they were shown publicly for the first time at Heroes and Healers. In a city where a lot of screen culture still depends on traditional festivals, that made the Alys Stephens Center feel like a temporary premiere house, not just a performance venue.

The event also kept a firm community focus. Proceeds benefited the UAB chapter of the Trauma Survivors Network, which supports peer mentoring and support groups for trauma survivors and their families. UAB said two support groups had already been held with seven individual trauma survivors participating, a reminder that the glamour on the carpet was attached to real recovery work happening offstage. The gala itself was created in 2024, and UAB holds it in May during Trauma Awareness Month, so the 2026 edition extended a format that has quickly become part of the university’s calendar.

For Alabama filmgoers, the crossover is bigger than one night. UAB Hospital is Alabama’s only ACS-verified adult Level I trauma center, and UAB says it cares for nearly one-third of all trauma patients in the state. UAB also notes that more than 40 million Americans, including 60% of Alabamians, live more than an hour from a trauma center. Put that alongside a red-carpet premiere in Birmingham and the point lands hard: this city is not just hosting screenings, it is using film language to make public health feel visible, local and worth showing up for.