Betty Clark is an 80-year-old, African American chaplain on staff at The Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus in Oakland, CA. Jessica Zitter is a White, Jewish physician and Betty’s colleague on the Palliative Care service for over a decade. The two women are an unlikely team; chaplains and doctors do not usually pair up within the hierarchy of the hospital. Dr. Zitter, trained to believe in medical interventions and science, was not seeking a relationship with a chaplain. And Chaplain Clark never expected the doctor to take interest in her work. But with time, the two women’s shared values and histories overcome the forces that keep them apart.
Biographies:
Jessica Zitter is a physician, writer, and filmmaker who focuses on end-of-life care. She and her work were highlighted in Dan Krauss’ Extremis, winner of a Golden Gate Award for Best Bay Area Short and Oscar-nominated for Best Short Documentary. Prior to making her debut with The Chaplain and the Doctor, she directed a short, Caregiver: A Love Story. She is also the author of Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life.
Jen Gilomen is an award-winning documentary producer, director, and cinematographer who has created nationally and internationally distributed films, including Life on the Line, In My Shoes, and Deep Down, which was funded by ITVS and MacArthur Foundation, participated in the U.S. State Department’s American Documentary Showcase, and received an Emmy nomination. She is a member of New Day Films and co-founder of the Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers.
Niema Jordan is a journalist, filmmaker, and podcaster. Jordan’s early career was spent in New York as a health and relationships editor at ESSENCE Magazine. Her thesis film, Oasis, tells the story of a struggling medical clinic that treats underserved populations battling Hepatitis C. The film won the Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award at the Denver Film Festival. Her production credits include The Chosen Life, Fatherless, Bobby Kennedy for President and The Force.
