The Chaplain & The Doctor
Oakland, California | Film Feature
Documentary
Two allies. One mission. The Chaplain & The Doctor tells the story of the transformative relationship between two colleagues, working together to challenge the status quo and model compassionate care. Through their work, it is clear that every patient's story holds the key to healing.
The Chaplain & The Doctor
Oakland, California | Film Feature
Documentary
2 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $26,248 for distribution. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
140 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
Two allies. One mission. The Chaplain & The Doctor tells the story of the transformative relationship between two colleagues, working together to challenge the status quo and model compassionate care. Through their work, it is clear that every patient's story holds the key to healing.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The Chaplain & The Doctor tells the story of two people who transcend their professional siloes, become unlikely friends and through that friendship begin to heal their patients - and each other.
Betty Clark is an 80-year-old, African American chaplain on staff at The Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus, the level-one trauma center in Oakland, California. Jessica Zitter is a white Jewish physician who has been 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 hierarchical and siloed halls 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 overcome the forces that keep them apart, and they discover that they do their best work together.
Under Betty’s guidance, Jessica begins a journey to understand the barriers and biases that doctors like herself often bring to the bedside. As Betty starts to face her own health challenges, Jessica takes over her care through a deeply personal lens, witnessing more intimately the experience of patients of color in America’s hospitals – this time, with someone she’s grown to love.
On so many fronts, the United States is struggling to connect across divides that seem to grow wider and more contentious every day. This is the moment to tell a story about the power of human-to-human connection and reaching across the barriers that keep us apart.
Many physicians chose their careers based on an authentic desire to heal. But healing the body without attending to the spirit and soul causes harm to all involved. As Chaplain Betty Clark always says, “everybody has a story.” And it’s those stories that will allow true healing. The Chaplain & The Doctor models a new kind of care, one that honors both spirit and body, the diverse backgrounds of patients, and the most human needs we all share.
All donations are tax-deductible! Funding from this campaign will provide crucial and time-sensitive support to close the funding gap for finishing costs, activations around the premiere and screening tour, and our upcoming engagement and impact campaign. If we can share the film widely through community screenings, organizational partnerships, and national distribution, we will be poised to have the impact we hope to have on physicians, healthcare providers and other important stakeholder audiences. Your support will help us reach these audiences with tailored toolkits and discussion guides designed to foster important conversations and inspire change.
Help us spread the word about this important film and impact campaign by:
- supporting the project here on Seed & Spark with a donation of any size or a "follow"
- following us on social media (@jessicazitter on all platforms)
- sharing our campaign with family and friends!
The more money we raise, the more of our impact goals we can reach!
If we raise $50,000 we can unlock:
Marquee Screenings
Partner with community organizations in key cities to screen the film and host impact activities. A series of localized, community screenings will connect this film with target audiences. These events, co-hosted with partners with diverse and extensive networks, will focus on using the film to educate and engage with changemakers in healthcare, chaplaincy, racial equity, and other community groups.
If we raise $100,000 we can unlock:
Limited Theatrical Run
Self-distribute a limited theater run in communities across the country to bring the film to a wide array of audiences and start conversations across the nation about humanizing healthcare for all.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Trailer
Costs $5,000
Hire a dedicated editor to cut a professional trailer at the lengths required by most distributors.
Publicity
Costs $7,500
Contract with a publicist and generate materials to help spread the word about our film.
Screening Reception
Costs $2,500
Host a catered reception at high-impact screening locations where we have supporters and nonprofit outreach partners.
Discussion Guides and Impact Materials
Costs $3,000
Create discussion guides and educational materials to use as teaching tools along with the film to create much needed impact.
Finishing Costs
Costs $7,000
Close the funding gap for the last post-production processes of mastering and creating DCPs so the film can screen in theaters.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Share this update!
About This Team
Director and Producer Jessica Zitter is a documentary filmmaker, writer, physician, founder of the nonprofit Reel Medicine Media, and respected thought leader on humanizing healthcare for all through the power of storytelling.
Featured in: Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Extremis (2016)
Director: Caregiver: A Love Story (2020)
Other:
Author: Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017)
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Producer and writer Jen Gilomen is an award-winning, Emmy®-nominated documentary producer, director, and cinematographer who has created films screened on PBS, Netflix, Amazon, and at film festivals around the world, exploring topics such as queer issues, youth, healthcare, immigration, and climate change.
Deep Down (co-director and producer with Sally Rubin, Independent Lens, 2010)
Life on the Line (with Sally Rubin, 2014)
Unsettled (producer and cinematographer, dir. Tom Shepard, 2019)
Born for This (director/producer/dp, 2023).
Other:
Director at BAVC
Supervising Producer at ITVS
Board Member of Working Films
Co-founder of the Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers
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Producer Niema Jordan is a writer, speaker, professor, and an award-winning filmmaker from Oakland, CA. She is passionate about character-driven stories, harnessing the power of media for positive community impact, and ensuring that future generations have an opportunity to thrive.
Oasis (2016)
The Chosen Life
Bobby Kennedy for President
The Me You Can’t See
Eyes On The Prize: Hallowed Ground
Other:
Her work has been published in ESSENCE, EBONY, and Glamour
Board Member of Oakland Kids First.
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Editor Jacob Bricca, ACE is an award-winning film editor, director, producer, and scholar. His producing and directing credits include films screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
Lost In La Mancha
Independent Lens Audience Award Winner Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew
2016 Sundance Special Jury Award Winner The Bad Kids
2023 Peabody Award Winner Missing in Brooks County
Other:
Co-Chair of the ACE Education Committee
Author: Documentary Editing: Principles and Practice
Author: How Documentaries Work, published by Oxford University Press
Head of the Film and Television Production Division, University of Arizona
.jpg)
Executive Producer Corey Kennard is Pastor of Amplify Christian Church and also serves as an activist in the field of healthcare. His holistic approach (body, mind, and spirit) serves as the foundation for his desire to see all human beings treated with dignity, honor, and respect in all facets of life.
Founder of the "No Negative Energy" Life Coach Brand & Resource Center
Published Writer in the New York Times, The Journal of Palliative Medicine, Detroit News etc
Speaker on the subject of faith and its impact on medical care
Board Member for Reimagine: End of Life
Board Member for the Cambia Health Foundation’s National Advisory Board for the Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program (SSLP)
Former National Advisory Board Member for the Hospice Foundation of America
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Executive Producer Catherine King brings 30 years of experience leading mission-driven storytelling and impact campaigns for non-profit, philanthropic, and start-up media organizations.
2020 Emmy Nominated docuseries, Fundamental: Gender Justice. No Exceptions
Other:
Executive Director of Reel Medicine Media
Head of Storytelling & Advocacy for Global Fund for Women
Vice President of International Museum of Women
Judge for UN Women Global Voices Film Festival
Advisor to United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF)
Board Member of West Marin Fund
.jpg)
Executive Producer Jacqueline Olive is an independent filmmaker with nearly twenty years of experience in journalism and film.
2019 Sundance Festival Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency winner Always in Season
Death is Our Business
Apple TV series Lincoln’s Dilemma
Other:
Former film professor University of California, Santa Cruz
.png)
Executive Producer Brian Walker is the CEO of Picture Motion, a social advocacy and marketing company that leads award winning social impact campaigns for films, tv and other media.
Board Member of Color Congress, an ecosystem-builder that is committed to organizations led by people of ] color that serve nonfiction filmmakers, leaders, and audiences of color across the United States and US islands.
Former director of social impact and digital strategy at Participant Media for the TEACH and He Named Me Malala campaigns
First Culture and Entertainment Advocacy Director at Color of Change
Stakeholder Engagement Leader with the Enterprise Diversity & Inclusion group at The Walt Disney Company
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
The Chaplain & The Doctor tells the story of two people who transcend their professional siloes, become unlikely friends and through that friendship begin to heal their patients - and each other.
Betty Clark is an 80-year-old, African American chaplain on staff at The Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus, the level-one trauma center in Oakland, California. Jessica Zitter is a white Jewish physician who has been 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 hierarchical and siloed halls 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 overcome the forces that keep them apart, and they discover that they do their best work together.
Under Betty’s guidance, Jessica begins a journey to understand the barriers and biases that doctors like herself often bring to the bedside. As Betty starts to face her own health challenges, Jessica takes over her care through a deeply personal lens, witnessing more intimately the experience of patients of color in America’s hospitals – this time, with someone she’s grown to love.
On so many fronts, the United States is struggling to connect across divides that seem to grow wider and more contentious every day. This is the moment to tell a story about the power of human-to-human connection and reaching across the barriers that keep us apart.
Many physicians chose their careers based on an authentic desire to heal. But healing the body without attending to the spirit and soul causes harm to all involved. As Chaplain Betty Clark always says, “everybody has a story.” And it’s those stories that will allow true healing. The Chaplain & The Doctor models a new kind of care, one that honors both spirit and body, the diverse backgrounds of patients, and the most human needs we all share.
All donations are tax-deductible! Funding from this campaign will provide crucial and time-sensitive support to close the funding gap for finishing costs, activations around the premiere and screening tour, and our upcoming engagement and impact campaign. If we can share the film widely through community screenings, organizational partnerships, and national distribution, we will be poised to have the impact we hope to have on physicians, healthcare providers and other important stakeholder audiences. Your support will help us reach these audiences with tailored toolkits and discussion guides designed to foster important conversations and inspire change.
Help us spread the word about this important film and impact campaign by:
- supporting the project here on Seed & Spark with a donation of any size or a "follow"
- following us on social media (@jessicazitter on all platforms)
- sharing our campaign with family and friends!
The more money we raise, the more of our impact goals we can reach!
If we raise $50,000 we can unlock:
Marquee Screenings
Partner with community organizations in key cities to screen the film and host impact activities. A series of localized, community screenings will connect this film with target audiences. These events, co-hosted with partners with diverse and extensive networks, will focus on using the film to educate and engage with changemakers in healthcare, chaplaincy, racial equity, and other community groups.
If we raise $100,000 we can unlock:
Limited Theatrical Run
Self-distribute a limited theater run in communities across the country to bring the film to a wide array of audiences and start conversations across the nation about humanizing healthcare for all.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Trailer
Costs $5,000
Hire a dedicated editor to cut a professional trailer at the lengths required by most distributors.
Publicity
Costs $7,500
Contract with a publicist and generate materials to help spread the word about our film.
Screening Reception
Costs $2,500
Host a catered reception at high-impact screening locations where we have supporters and nonprofit outreach partners.
Discussion Guides and Impact Materials
Costs $3,000
Create discussion guides and educational materials to use as teaching tools along with the film to create much needed impact.
Finishing Costs
Costs $7,000
Close the funding gap for the last post-production processes of mastering and creating DCPs so the film can screen in theaters.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Share this update!
About This Team
Director and Producer Jessica Zitter is a documentary filmmaker, writer, physician, founder of the nonprofit Reel Medicine Media, and respected thought leader on humanizing healthcare for all through the power of storytelling.
Featured in: Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Extremis (2016)
Director: Caregiver: A Love Story (2020)
Other:
Author: Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017)
Producer and writer Jen Gilomen is an award-winning, Emmy®-nominated documentary producer, director, and cinematographer who has created films screened on PBS, Netflix, Amazon, and at film festivals around the world, exploring topics such as queer issues, youth, healthcare, immigration, and climate change.
Deep Down (co-director and producer with Sally Rubin, Independent Lens, 2010)
Life on the Line (with Sally Rubin, 2014)
Unsettled (producer and cinematographer, dir. Tom Shepard, 2019)
Born for This (director/producer/dp, 2023).
Other:
Director at BAVC
Supervising Producer at ITVS
Board Member of Working Films
Co-founder of the Collective of Documentary Women Cinematographers
Producer Niema Jordan is a writer, speaker, professor, and an award-winning filmmaker from Oakland, CA. She is passionate about character-driven stories, harnessing the power of media for positive community impact, and ensuring that future generations have an opportunity to thrive.
Oasis (2016)
The Chosen Life
Bobby Kennedy for President
The Me You Can’t See
Eyes On The Prize: Hallowed Ground
Other:
Her work has been published in ESSENCE, EBONY, and Glamour
Board Member of Oakland Kids First.
Editor Jacob Bricca, ACE is an award-winning film editor, director, producer, and scholar. His producing and directing credits include films screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
Lost In La Mancha
Independent Lens Audience Award Winner Jimmy Scott: If You Only Knew
2016 Sundance Special Jury Award Winner The Bad Kids
2023 Peabody Award Winner Missing in Brooks County
Other:
Co-Chair of the ACE Education Committee
Author: Documentary Editing: Principles and Practice
Author: How Documentaries Work, published by Oxford University Press
Head of the Film and Television Production Division, University of Arizona
Executive Producer Corey Kennard is Pastor of Amplify Christian Church and also serves as an activist in the field of healthcare. His holistic approach (body, mind, and spirit) serves as the foundation for his desire to see all human beings treated with dignity, honor, and respect in all facets of life.
Founder of the "No Negative Energy" Life Coach Brand & Resource Center
Published Writer in the New York Times, The Journal of Palliative Medicine, Detroit News etc
Speaker on the subject of faith and its impact on medical care
Board Member for Reimagine: End of Life
Board Member for the Cambia Health Foundation’s National Advisory Board for the Sojourns Scholar Leadership Program (SSLP)
Former National Advisory Board Member for the Hospice Foundation of America
Executive Producer Catherine King brings 30 years of experience leading mission-driven storytelling and impact campaigns for non-profit, philanthropic, and start-up media organizations.
2020 Emmy Nominated docuseries, Fundamental: Gender Justice. No Exceptions
Other:
Executive Director of Reel Medicine Media
Head of Storytelling & Advocacy for Global Fund for Women
Vice President of International Museum of Women
Judge for UN Women Global Voices Film Festival
Advisor to United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF)
Board Member of West Marin Fund
Executive Producer Jacqueline Olive is an independent filmmaker with nearly twenty years of experience in journalism and film.
2019 Sundance Festival Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency winner Always in Season
Death is Our Business
Apple TV series Lincoln’s Dilemma
Other:
Former film professor University of California, Santa Cruz
Executive Producer Brian Walker is the CEO of Picture Motion, a social advocacy and marketing company that leads award winning social impact campaigns for films, tv and other media.
Board Member of Color Congress, an ecosystem-builder that is committed to organizations led by people of ] color that serve nonfiction filmmakers, leaders, and audiences of color across the United States and US islands.
Former director of social impact and digital strategy at Participant Media for the TEACH and He Named Me Malala campaigns
First Culture and Entertainment Advocacy Director at Color of Change
Stakeholder Engagement Leader with the Enterprise Diversity & Inclusion group at The Walt Disney Company