SFFILM Festival began yesterday with an exciting lineup of US and international documentaries. I asked three directors about what it means to show their films in San Francisco and how the Bay Area filmmaking community has influenced their careers.
“I love that SFFILM - the longtime center of Bay Area cinema - takes place in city of so many personal and cultural contradictions…The area has changed so much - and yet we still have a vibrant, rich and cutting edge experimental and doc film community and I'm proud to be part of it – Julie Forrest Wyman (The Tallest Dwarf)
Watch the video of this Instagram Live conversation between Thom Powers and Jessie Fairbanks, Director of Programming at SFFilm at they talk highlights from the documentary slate at the festival.
We all have memorable doc-watching experiences. The first documentary I saw in a cinema was The Story of the Weeping Camel at the Curzon Mayfair and recall an eleven-year-old me finding the red velvet seats distinctly high-brow, sparking a love of tiny, old jewel-box theaters, like the Cinegrill at the Hollywood Roosevelt.
Now, we want to hear yours – whether you revel in the oppulence of waiters scuttling in the dark to deliver in-seat snacks at the Alamo, or a devotee of filmmaker post-show talks at IFC, nominate your top theater to watch a doc – anywhere in the world – by April 30 and we’ll publish the liveliest responses in May!
Two unlikely allies work to bring curiosity, connection, and compassion to a broken healthcare system, one patient at a time.
My motivation for telling the story:
Chaplain Betty Clark created a space for me to grow closer to the person I want to be, and for that I am eternally grateful. I wanted to repay the gift by telling her story.
It didn’t hurt that she is one of the most interesting people, and characters, that I know. I could listen to her talk (and have) for hours and hours. Betty and I have worked together for 15 years, and it wasn’t always smooth sailing. In the beginning I didn’t see that she, a chaplain, had anything to teach me, a doctor. When she tried, I was resistant. But with time, we connected around shared values, mutual respect, and a realization that we were better teaming up together than trying to care for patients alone. As our unusual relationship bloomed, it became clear that it was a story that needed to be told.
One of the major goals I have for this story is to improve the healthcare system. Most
healthcare providers will never have a Chaplain Betty to collaborate with or learn from.
And so I want to get her voice out to all of them, to inspire them as I have been inspired, and to inject a little more compassion and collaboration in the care of seriously ill patients.
Why I’m excited to show the film at SFFILM:
There simply couldn’t be a more fitting place to debut this film. The story is distinctly
Oakland based: the film crew, the film subjects, our friends and families, the staff at
Highland Hospital and surrounding healthcare facilities, Betty’s church community, my Jewish community, local medical professionals and training programs.. everyone is
here. We have more than 300 signed releases, just from Highland Hospital’s staff and
patients. As proof, we filled our screenings two weeks before the dates. So many
people have not been able to get tickets and are eagerly awaiting a time when we will
be showing it locally again.
As you will read below, I owe so much of my skill and confidence as a filmmaker to the SFFilm Residency program. I couldn’t have made this film without them.
How the Bay Area filmmaking community has benefited my practice:
I simply could not have told this story without the Bay Area Filmmaking community.
First, it was Pete Nicks, who supported my idea for a film about medical decision-
making in our ICU at Highland Hospital and helped me find the amazing director, Dan
Krauss, to make Extremis in 2016. Then, I worked with amazing cinematographer Clare Major and my co-director Kevin Gordon to capture the story for Caregiver: A Love Story, which won Best Documentary Short at SFJFF.
As my vision for The Chaplain & The Doctor came into focus, I was accepted into the San Francisco Filmhouse Residency in 2022 and then again in 2023. That program was critical step to my becoming a true filmmaker, and to birthing the story that we are about to share with the SFFilm audience.
I was a doctor with absolutely no filmmaking experience, tremendous imposter
syndrome, but a story to tell. At first, I was embarrassed to be there. I was older than
the other makers. I was less experienced and savvy about the film world. But I was met
with pure support, camaraderie, and the faith that I could succeed in telling this
important story. Through the residency I was lucky enough to meet some of the most
impressive and professional filmmakers and to collaborate with many on this film,
including Jen Gilomen (producer), Cheo Tyehimba-Taylor (consulting producer), Ines Melo (editorial assistant), to name a few.
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