The Chaplain of Oakland
Oakland, California | Film Feature
Documentary
THE CHAPLAIN OF OAKLAND explores racial healthcare inequities through the relationship between two powerful and committed women: a Black hospital chaplain and her Jewish physician sidekick. Together this unlikely pair works to transform a broken medical system, one patient at a time.
The Chaplain of Oakland
Oakland, California | Film Feature
Documentary
2 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $48,322 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
134 supporters | followers
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THE CHAPLAIN OF OAKLAND explores racial healthcare inequities through the relationship between two powerful and committed women: a Black hospital chaplain and her Jewish physician sidekick. Together this unlikely pair works to transform a broken medical system, one patient at a time.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Dear Supporters! This campaign is closed - but check out our new campaign for more details and updates!
Chaplain Betty Clark is committed to improving the way Black people die in America.
The Chaplain of Oakland, a documentary feature film, follows 78-year-old Betty Clark as she cares for seriously ill patients at Oakland’s public hospital. As one of few Black women on a predominately white staff, Betty refuses to accept the status quo, where patients of color suffer from a healthcare system that has long neglected and often abuses them.
Betty’s goal is to bring dignity and empathy to the bedside of every patient she encounters. She does this work with profound reflection, charismatic vitality, and an often-irreverent sense of humor. When she leans over patients’ bed railings to share a song, discover a mutual acquaintance, or compare stories about “great-grans,” the patient becomes the most important person in the room—valued, treasured, and whole.
Dr. Jessica Zitter has worked at Betty’s side for over a decade as a colleague, and under her wing as a mentee. She is an enthusiastic and earnest learner, whom Betty lovingly challenges to become more aware of her biases and the insidious influence of medical racism.
As Betty starts to face her own health challenges, oscillating between the roles of chaplain and patient, she is further galvanized in her mission to bring justice to the practice of healthcare in this country. Whether sharing stories of struggle and triumph or eliciting the stories of others, Betty finds the humanity in all of us.
Why This Story?
In hospitals around America, African American patients are suffering more than their white counterparts. This is in part a story of structural inequities and social determinants of health, but also one of individual practitioners – mostly white – who have implicitly accepted biases and stereotypes about people of color.
Many healthcare providers chose their careers based on a desire to heal. But regardless of their good intentions, they operate within a system that continues to harm people of color. Roughly 70% of physicians in the US display some level of bias and racism with enormous implications for health outcomes – especially as end of life approaches.
Black and Brown patients are more likely than white patients to die attached to hospital machines and with unmet needs – particularly spiritual support. These facts, among many others, help explain their pervasive lack of trust in our healthcare system. Given the lack of diversity in our healthcare workforce and the dearth of spiritual support in our hospitals, it is clear why the presence of people like Chaplain Betty on healthcare teams is so crucial.
Why Now?
On so many fronts, the United States continues to reckon with racial injustice. This is the moment to tell Betty’s story. We have an important opportunity to reflect on the medical practices that are contributing to health disparities for people of color. As we will learn from Chaplain Betty Clark, we can— indeed we must— do better.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Editor
Costs $35,000
Toward the production of a strong rough cut of the film by spring 2024
Depth Audio Interviews
Costs $2,000
Depth audio interviews with Chaplain Betty and Doctor Jessica Zitter help form the narrative backbone of the film!
Composer
Costs $7,000
This line item will allow us to secure a composer and to take us through the creation of a strong rough cut with original music
3 key day long shoots
Costs $6,000
To execute 3 core shoots to gather material necessary to get us to a strong rough cut
Film Poster
Costs $2,500
Hiring an artist / graphic designer to develop the core public facing image that represents the film
Sound design consult
Costs $2,500
To work with a top tier sound designer to map sound design for the film
Assistant Editor
Costs $5,000
To assist the editor / production team in the creation of a rough cut
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Director Jessica Zitter is a documentary filmmaker, writer, physician, and founder of Reel Medicine Media, devoted to transforming how people die in America. Dr. Zitter is the primary featured subject and a member of the team that created the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Extremis (2016). She went on to direct and produce the award-winning documentary Caregiver: A Love Story (2020), which examines the growing crisis of family caregiver burden in the United States. Dr. Zitter’s book, Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017), describes her evolution from a doctor focused on extending life at all costs to one more patient-centered and humanistic. Recently named one of Next Avenue’s "Influencers in Aging," Dr. Zitter practices the unusual combination of critical care and palliative care in Oakland, California.
Executive Producer Jackie Olive is an independent filmmaker with nearly twenty years of experience in journalism and film. Her award-winning debut
feature documentary film, Always in Season, has received numerous honors including winner of the 2019 Sundance Festival Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency and nominations for 2019 Best Writing from IDA Documentary Awards and Cinema Eye Honors. Jackie is also the director, producer, and writer of the documentary film, Death is Our Business, and director and executive producer for two episodes of Lincoln’s Dilemma, a 4-part unscripted 2022 Apple TV series. Jackie is now writing and directing the documentary feature film, Color of Cola, with Academy Award-nominated Stanley Nelson. After teaching film at the University of California, Santa Cruz until 2022, Jackie remains on the Central Coast of California happily making films and immersive media projects full-time.
Executive Director Catherine King brings 30 years experience leading mission-driven storytelling and impact campaigns for non-profit, philanthropic, and start-up media organizations. Most recently, King served as Head of Advocacy for Global Fund for Women where she led organizational branding, communications, digital storytelling, and produced 20+ media campaigns on women's human rights. King is the Creator and Executive Producer of Fundamental: Gender Justice. No Exceptions, a 2020 Emmy-nominated docuseries and impact campaign on gender and racial justice movements, released by YouTube Originals in partnership with Refinery29. Previously as Vice President of the International Museum of Women, King developed award-winning online exhibitions, global pop-up installations, speaker series, and partnerships in 14 countries on 5 continents. In addition to her work with The Chaplain of Oakland and Reel Medicine Media, King is an advisor to the United Nations Association Film Festival, serves as a judge for the UN Women Global Voices Film Festival, and is on the board of directors of the West Marin Fund. She has a degree in Art History from Smith College.
Consulting Producer / Story Editor Katie Galloway is an Oakland born and raised filmmaker and impact producer with 20+ years experience directing, producing, reporting and writing projects for film, television, radio and online distribution; 15+ years leading and managing media organizations and 10+ years working in political advocacy. Her film and media work has broadcast nationally on PBS/POV, PBS FRONTLINE and VOCES and on Netflix, screened at New York MoMA’s Director’s Fortnight, Sundance Stories of Change Lab, Film Society at Lincoln Center, Capitol Hill, and in prisons, schools and film festivals worldwide. A four time Sundance Fellow and former Filmmaker in Residence at UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, Galloway has received The Writer’s Guild of America’s Best Documentary Screenplay Award, the Imagen Foundation’s Best Documentary Award, and seven national Emmy nominations. Galloway taught Documentary Production at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she received her Master’s Degree in Documentary Storytelling, and has taught Documentary History and Theory in the Media Studies department at UC Berkeley, where she also received her Ph.D. in Political Science.
Consulting Producer Rajal Pitroda is a producer of fiction and non-fiction films. She is a Women at Sundance Fellow, a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and an Impact Partners Producers Fellow. Rajal most recently produced Down a Dark Stairwell, a feature documentary that premiered at the 2020 True/False Film Festival and was broadcast on Independent Lens. Her work has been supported by Black Public Media, Firelight Media, Chicken and Egg Pictures, the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM and others. Prior to producing, Rajal was the Founder and CEO of Cinevention, a media company focused on marketing and distribution strategies for independent films. Rajal started her career in film working in international marketing for Bollywood movies based in Mumbai. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from London Business School.
Creative Consultant Cheo Tyehimba Taylor began his career as a journalist at Entertainment Weekly in New York and later graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television’s Professional Program. His narrative short film Rites (2015) was an Official Selection of several festivals, including New Filmmakers Los Angeles, featured on MovieMaker Magazine TV, and premiered on Comcast. He directed and produced the original docuseries KingMakers of Oakland (2016), an Official Selection at the American Black Film Festival and featured in The New York Times. He was the founding director of the Game Changers Project, a national fellowship for indie filmmakers across eight U.S. cities. The program partnered with The Obama Administration’s My Brother’s Keeper program to produce short films about young Black men in pursuit of excellence. The films were broadcast on WQED-PBS, MSNBC, and other platforms. Cheo’s previous work in healthcare, with a focus on health disparities, helped him develop, direct, and produce Together We Rise (2019), a 10-part docuseries about health equity in the age of Trump.
Contributing Editor Jessica Jones is an Emmy® nominated documentary filmmaker and editor. Her work often focuses on community, cultural representation, and racial equity through character-driven narratives. She has served as an assistant editor for multiple feature documentaries, such as A Fragile Trust (Independent Lens, Dir: Samantha Grant), A New Color (Dir: Mo Morris), and an associate editor for Voices Rising: Music of Wakanda Forever (Disney+, Dir: Bernardo Ruiz). She has edited numerous short documentaries, which have appeared in The New York Times, KQED, the BBC, and Instagram, among other publications. In 2016, she received an Emmy® nomination for Women Dancers Redefine Oakland’s Street Dancing Scene published on KQED Arts. She is currently directing and editing Woman Who Ride a short documentary about Oakland’s first all-female Black motorcycle club as well as editing Born for This, a feature documentary addressing the Black maternal health and birth equity.
Director of Photography Aurora Brachman is an award-winning documentary director and producer drawn to intimate stories of relationships within
families and communities. Her film Club Quarantine, about a virtual queer dance party, premiered on the New York Times Op-Docs. And her short documentary Joychild, about a young gender-expansive child, was acquired by The New Yorker, broadcast on POV, and shortlisted for an IDA Award. Her work has screened at numerous festivals including Sundance, True/ False, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, DOC NYC, and selected for Vimeo Staff Picks. Aurora is a graduate of the MFA program in Documentary Film at Stanford University, a 2020 Sundance Ignite Fellow, and a 2022 SFFilm House Resident. She is also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in filmmaking. She associate produced the upcoming A24 documentary Underrated, co-produced Apple TV+’s Girls State, sequel to the Sundance and Emmy award-winning Boys State; and assisted on the critically acclaimed Showtime docuseries Couples Therapy. Aurora primarily makes work about the experiences of Black, brown, and Queer people and is committed to collaborative and ethical storytelling.
Impact Consultant 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. Her work has been published in ESSENCE, EBONY, and Glamour. Her documentary film Oasis, which explores a struggling medical clinic's work with underserved populations battling Hepatitis C, earned her the Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award at the Denver Film Festival in 2016. Her production credits include The Chosen Life, Bobby Kennedy for President, The Me You Can’t See, and Eyes On The Prize: Hallowed Ground. She is an alumna of Northwestern University and UC Berkeley. She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and serves on the board of Oakland Kids First.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Dear Supporters! This campaign is closed - but check out our new campaign for more details and updates!
Chaplain Betty Clark is committed to improving the way Black people die in America.
The Chaplain of Oakland, a documentary feature film, follows 78-year-old Betty Clark as she cares for seriously ill patients at Oakland’s public hospital. As one of few Black women on a predominately white staff, Betty refuses to accept the status quo, where patients of color suffer from a healthcare system that has long neglected and often abuses them.
Betty’s goal is to bring dignity and empathy to the bedside of every patient she encounters. She does this work with profound reflection, charismatic vitality, and an often-irreverent sense of humor. When she leans over patients’ bed railings to share a song, discover a mutual acquaintance, or compare stories about “great-grans,” the patient becomes the most important person in the room—valued, treasured, and whole.
Dr. Jessica Zitter has worked at Betty’s side for over a decade as a colleague, and under her wing as a mentee. She is an enthusiastic and earnest learner, whom Betty lovingly challenges to become more aware of her biases and the insidious influence of medical racism.
As Betty starts to face her own health challenges, oscillating between the roles of chaplain and patient, she is further galvanized in her mission to bring justice to the practice of healthcare in this country. Whether sharing stories of struggle and triumph or eliciting the stories of others, Betty finds the humanity in all of us.
Why This Story?
In hospitals around America, African American patients are suffering more than their white counterparts. This is in part a story of structural inequities and social determinants of health, but also one of individual practitioners – mostly white – who have implicitly accepted biases and stereotypes about people of color.
Many healthcare providers chose their careers based on a desire to heal. But regardless of their good intentions, they operate within a system that continues to harm people of color. Roughly 70% of physicians in the US display some level of bias and racism with enormous implications for health outcomes – especially as end of life approaches.
Black and Brown patients are more likely than white patients to die attached to hospital machines and with unmet needs – particularly spiritual support. These facts, among many others, help explain their pervasive lack of trust in our healthcare system. Given the lack of diversity in our healthcare workforce and the dearth of spiritual support in our hospitals, it is clear why the presence of people like Chaplain Betty on healthcare teams is so crucial.
Why Now?
On so many fronts, the United States continues to reckon with racial injustice. This is the moment to tell Betty’s story. We have an important opportunity to reflect on the medical practices that are contributing to health disparities for people of color. As we will learn from Chaplain Betty Clark, we can— indeed we must— do better.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Editor
Costs $35,000
Toward the production of a strong rough cut of the film by spring 2024
Depth Audio Interviews
Costs $2,000
Depth audio interviews with Chaplain Betty and Doctor Jessica Zitter help form the narrative backbone of the film!
Composer
Costs $7,000
This line item will allow us to secure a composer and to take us through the creation of a strong rough cut with original music
3 key day long shoots
Costs $6,000
To execute 3 core shoots to gather material necessary to get us to a strong rough cut
Film Poster
Costs $2,500
Hiring an artist / graphic designer to develop the core public facing image that represents the film
Sound design consult
Costs $2,500
To work with a top tier sound designer to map sound design for the film
Assistant Editor
Costs $5,000
To assist the editor / production team in the creation of a rough cut
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Director Jessica Zitter is a documentary filmmaker, writer, physician, and founder of Reel Medicine Media, devoted to transforming how people die in America. Dr. Zitter is the primary featured subject and a member of the team that created the Oscar- and Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Extremis (2016). She went on to direct and produce the award-winning documentary Caregiver: A Love Story (2020), which examines the growing crisis of family caregiver burden in the United States. Dr. Zitter’s book, Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of Life (2017), describes her evolution from a doctor focused on extending life at all costs to one more patient-centered and humanistic. Recently named one of Next Avenue’s "Influencers in Aging," Dr. Zitter practices the unusual combination of critical care and palliative care in Oakland, California.
Executive Producer Jackie Olive is an independent filmmaker with nearly twenty years of experience in journalism and film. Her award-winning debut
feature documentary film, Always in Season, has received numerous honors including winner of the 2019 Sundance Festival Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency and nominations for 2019 Best Writing from IDA Documentary Awards and Cinema Eye Honors. Jackie is also the director, producer, and writer of the documentary film, Death is Our Business, and director and executive producer for two episodes of Lincoln’s Dilemma, a 4-part unscripted 2022 Apple TV series. Jackie is now writing and directing the documentary feature film, Color of Cola, with Academy Award-nominated Stanley Nelson. After teaching film at the University of California, Santa Cruz until 2022, Jackie remains on the Central Coast of California happily making films and immersive media projects full-time.
Executive Director Catherine King brings 30 years experience leading mission-driven storytelling and impact campaigns for non-profit, philanthropic, and start-up media organizations. Most recently, King served as Head of Advocacy for Global Fund for Women where she led organizational branding, communications, digital storytelling, and produced 20+ media campaigns on women's human rights. King is the Creator and Executive Producer of Fundamental: Gender Justice. No Exceptions, a 2020 Emmy-nominated docuseries and impact campaign on gender and racial justice movements, released by YouTube Originals in partnership with Refinery29. Previously as Vice President of the International Museum of Women, King developed award-winning online exhibitions, global pop-up installations, speaker series, and partnerships in 14 countries on 5 continents. In addition to her work with The Chaplain of Oakland and Reel Medicine Media, King is an advisor to the United Nations Association Film Festival, serves as a judge for the UN Women Global Voices Film Festival, and is on the board of directors of the West Marin Fund. She has a degree in Art History from Smith College.
Consulting Producer / Story Editor Katie Galloway is an Oakland born and raised filmmaker and impact producer with 20+ years experience directing, producing, reporting and writing projects for film, television, radio and online distribution; 15+ years leading and managing media organizations and 10+ years working in political advocacy. Her film and media work has broadcast nationally on PBS/POV, PBS FRONTLINE and VOCES and on Netflix, screened at New York MoMA’s Director’s Fortnight, Sundance Stories of Change Lab, Film Society at Lincoln Center, Capitol Hill, and in prisons, schools and film festivals worldwide. A four time Sundance Fellow and former Filmmaker in Residence at UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program, Galloway has received The Writer’s Guild of America’s Best Documentary Screenplay Award, the Imagen Foundation’s Best Documentary Award, and seven national Emmy nominations. Galloway taught Documentary Production at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she received her Master’s Degree in Documentary Storytelling, and has taught Documentary History and Theory in the Media Studies department at UC Berkeley, where she also received her Ph.D. in Political Science.
Consulting Producer Rajal Pitroda is a producer of fiction and non-fiction films. She is a Women at Sundance Fellow, a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and an Impact Partners Producers Fellow. Rajal most recently produced Down a Dark Stairwell, a feature documentary that premiered at the 2020 True/False Film Festival and was broadcast on Independent Lens. Her work has been supported by Black Public Media, Firelight Media, Chicken and Egg Pictures, the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM and others. Prior to producing, Rajal was the Founder and CEO of Cinevention, a media company focused on marketing and distribution strategies for independent films. Rajal started her career in film working in international marketing for Bollywood movies based in Mumbai. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from London Business School.
Creative Consultant Cheo Tyehimba Taylor began his career as a journalist at Entertainment Weekly in New York and later graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television’s Professional Program. His narrative short film Rites (2015) was an Official Selection of several festivals, including New Filmmakers Los Angeles, featured on MovieMaker Magazine TV, and premiered on Comcast. He directed and produced the original docuseries KingMakers of Oakland (2016), an Official Selection at the American Black Film Festival and featured in The New York Times. He was the founding director of the Game Changers Project, a national fellowship for indie filmmakers across eight U.S. cities. The program partnered with The Obama Administration’s My Brother’s Keeper program to produce short films about young Black men in pursuit of excellence. The films were broadcast on WQED-PBS, MSNBC, and other platforms. Cheo’s previous work in healthcare, with a focus on health disparities, helped him develop, direct, and produce Together We Rise (2019), a 10-part docuseries about health equity in the age of Trump.
Contributing Editor Jessica Jones is an Emmy® nominated documentary filmmaker and editor. Her work often focuses on community, cultural representation, and racial equity through character-driven narratives. She has served as an assistant editor for multiple feature documentaries, such as A Fragile Trust (Independent Lens, Dir: Samantha Grant), A New Color (Dir: Mo Morris), and an associate editor for Voices Rising: Music of Wakanda Forever (Disney+, Dir: Bernardo Ruiz). She has edited numerous short documentaries, which have appeared in The New York Times, KQED, the BBC, and Instagram, among other publications. In 2016, she received an Emmy® nomination for Women Dancers Redefine Oakland’s Street Dancing Scene published on KQED Arts. She is currently directing and editing Woman Who Ride a short documentary about Oakland’s first all-female Black motorcycle club as well as editing Born for This, a feature documentary addressing the Black maternal health and birth equity.
Director of Photography Aurora Brachman is an award-winning documentary director and producer drawn to intimate stories of relationships within
families and communities. Her film Club Quarantine, about a virtual queer dance party, premiered on the New York Times Op-Docs. And her short documentary Joychild, about a young gender-expansive child, was acquired by The New Yorker, broadcast on POV, and shortlisted for an IDA Award. Her work has screened at numerous festivals including Sundance, True/ False, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, DOC NYC, and selected for Vimeo Staff Picks. Aurora is a graduate of the MFA program in Documentary Film at Stanford University, a 2020 Sundance Ignite Fellow, and a 2022 SFFilm House Resident. She is also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in filmmaking. She associate produced the upcoming A24 documentary Underrated, co-produced Apple TV+’s Girls State, sequel to the Sundance and Emmy award-winning Boys State; and assisted on the critically acclaimed Showtime docuseries Couples Therapy. Aurora primarily makes work about the experiences of Black, brown, and Queer people and is committed to collaborative and ethical storytelling.
Impact Consultant 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. Her work has been published in ESSENCE, EBONY, and Glamour. Her documentary film Oasis, which explores a struggling medical clinic's work with underserved populations battling Hepatitis C, earned her the Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award at the Denver Film Festival in 2016. Her production credits include The Chosen Life, Bobby Kennedy for President, The Me You Can’t See, and Eyes On The Prize: Hallowed Ground. She is an alumna of Northwestern University and UC Berkeley. She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and serves on the board of Oakland Kids First.