Follows an aspiring hospital chaplain helping others deal with grief during the pandemic, while breaking down the interpersonal communication dynamics of authority and supervision. We break down A STILL SMALL VOICE by Luke Lorentzen, which won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary.
Sundance 2023 Section: U.S. Documentary Competition
Distribution: Cinematic release November 10, 2023, not available online
From Sundance’s website: Mati is an aspiring chaplain on track to finish her yearlong residency in the spiritual care department at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. She offers emotional support and spiritual care to patients wrestling with uncertainty, trauma, and grief. And she is doing so in 2020 and 2021, the two deadliest years in U.S. history. Finding balance becomes Mati’s daily fight, especially when, as her supervisor Rev. David puts it, “if your bandwidth is stretched, you don’t have the room inwardly to metabolize the harder stuff that comes at you.” It’s no surprise that Mati herself needs support and guidance, as does her supervisor, and his supervisor. What does care look like when everything around you seems broken?
Luke Lorentzen (Midnight Family, U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography, 2019 Sundance Film Festival) proves himself as a deeply respectful and empathetic documentarian. Thoughtfully inquisitive, Lorentzen is unafraid of intimacy, yet always careful not to trespass anyone’s boundaries with his camera. A Still Small Voice is a meditation on faith, loss, and professional sustainability, that successfully finds hope and meaning in seemingly hopeless situations.
Music Credit: spacedust by airtone
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Rough Transcript
[00:00:13.501] Kent Bye: Hello, this is Kent Bye.
[00:00:14.883] Wonder Bright: And this is Wonder Bright.
[00:00:16.124] Kent Bye: And welcome to Story All the Way Down, where we're continuing our series of looking at Sundance documentaries from 2023. And today's episode is on A Still Small Voice by Luke Lorenzen. So this was a film that actually won the Best Directing Award. It was a part of the U.S. documentary competition. And there's a lot of really long takes in this film that were following a aspiring chaplain, Matti, who is on track of finishing her year-long residency. She's at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. And you see her interacting with a lot of different situations with people who are dealing with grief and the types of situations that you would pull in a chaplain to talk about life and death and try to make meaning of different diagnoses or the end of life or to give last rights, lots of different situations that she's in. And so on the surface, there's a lot of her being on the front lines of grief in the middle of a pandemic. But I think at the heart, this film is also getting into lots of different interpersonal communication dynamics here. We have Mati, who's a part of the residency program. So she has a supervisor, Reverend David, and she's asking for more supervision from Reverend David. the film tracks their relationship and also Reverend David is going to his consultant to get more insight and information about his blocks. And so, it ends up being in some ways this depth psychological profile where people are aware of their traumas growing up and they are sharing different ways that they may be engaging in transference or counter-transference in their moments, but they're kind of really fully articulating their trauma, they're deconstructing it. But at the same time, with all the pressure that they're under, they're still falling into some of those patterns. So you're able to see how that plays out within their interpersonal dynamics. So I thought that it was a very slow paced film in a sense, and you kind of have to really sit with these long conversations that unfold. But I was really quite surprised with how the film was able to create this arc of this relationship and this existential conflict that comes about through these dimensions of communication and to what degree each of them are either understanding or misunderstanding or projecting or having moments of transference. They're kind of in the milieu of all of these different psychodramas with each other. And I feel like this film was able to capture so many aspects of that, but also potentially model modes of communication and interaction that are not perhaps a part of our daily discourse for how we relate to each other. So I thought it had a lot of really interesting components. So I'd love to hear some of your initial thoughts on it.
[00:02:55.888] Wonder Bright: Well, to start off with, I want to just do a little throwback to the very first podcast that we did in this series, where we introduced what we wanted to do with this series and how we wanted to think about bearing witness to all of the films that show up. And how, you know, I was speaking from this perspective that in difficulty or in trauma, we're really discovering that that act of bearing witness is perhaps the most important thing that we can do to heal ourselves or help others heal is just to bear witness. And this film is explicitly about that through all of the chaplains are clearly trained in a methodology whereby witnesses rendered explicit they're using language that is clearly from their training using lots of phrases like what I hear. And there's a lot of lingo that they're using that is clearly work specific and is learned, and yet is also obviously very helpful for them in being able to distinguish where their breakdowns in communication are occurring. and how to recover from them. And also, in addition to that, when we watch Mati with the people that she's ministering to, that we're actually watching her at work with people who are absent, they don't have that work lingo that she's using with her co-workers, and she isn't using it with them, but her conversations with the patients are completely informed by it. The quality of presence that she brings to her witnessing of people in the spaces that they find themselves is so profound. And the film is called The Still Small Voice for reasons I won't spoil. But it feels worth pointing out that you can't hear the still small voice in the absence of listening. And these long, slow takes that occur in the film, to me, occurred as Luke Lorenzen's experience of listening. And by listening, I want to do another callback to a film that we've already reviewed called The Tuba Thieves, which is by a deaf filmmaker named Allison O'Daniel. That film, if you haven't listened to it yet, is an entire testimony to what it is to listen and not necessarily with your ears, obviously, because it's by a deaf filmmaker. So it's about the attention, the attention that must be paid. And so while this film that we're talking about now is called A Still Small Voice, we don't hear that voice unless we're in that state of attentiveness. And so everything that spills forth from the film is coming from that capacity for attention that Lawrenson definitely displays. So it's understandable why he got the Best Director award for it. And I wasn't thinking about directing while I was watching it. I was paying attention, which is what he was directing me to do.
[00:06:05.403] Kent Bye: I just wanted to note at the end of the credits, they were saying that there's a lot of different ethical considerations that the director, Luke Lorenzen, was doing with both Mati, but also the patients were consenting to all this because they're shooting this in a hospital. So of course, there's all these privacy regulations with HIPAA. So they had to get consent to film all these things. And so just to be able to be in that environment in the midst of a pandemic was already in a bit of a wild situation for them to be in. Also, in the description, the synopsis is saying that she's offering emotional support and spiritual care to patients wrestling with uncertainty, trauma, and grief. And she's doing so in 2020 and 2021, the two deadliest years in US history. So we have this pressure cooker of being in the midst of the pandemic, which at that point is still relatively early in the pandemic, probably pre-vaccine for a lot of people, but still a lot of trauma that's happening in the context of all these different situations. Matsi happens to be working in palliative care, which as it says from this Google search, mitigating suffering among people with serious complex and often terminal illnesses. So she's dealing with people who are often facing the end of their life and ways that they're kind of reckoning with these deeper questions of spirituality and meaning. And so she's able to really bear witness to people under her care. I think a common theme that is recurrent throughout this whole entire piece is, to what degree can you draw firm boundaries around the work that you're doing in this type of intense type of witnessing? How do you turn that off or cut off yourself from what your own experiences are coming up versus being able to just check out. And so that's kind of like a recurring dynamic that she's actually going to her supervisor, explicitly requesting him to be more of an active supervisor. And so you have this request that creates this other dynamic where the supervisor's resistant, more passive, and he has his own trauma of people that have been harsh in his life. And so he's trying not to recreate that. So it kind of creates the seed of how the film continues to develop over that. You were speaking about the certain lingo that they have. There is this like, what I hear you saying, or I'm witnessing what you're saying, and really making sure that the people that are speaking, that you're honoring what they're saying, but also being able to center yourself and the deeper context of your own trauma or relationships or things that you're pulling in where you're bringing things into discussion that are entering in. And so the two main characters of the supervisor, Reverend David and Mati, who is the student under the residency program, they each have their ways in which that they're almost kind of like uniquely configured to trigger each other in certain ways that are very dramatic at certain points. And so I feel like at the one hand, they're aware of it, But on the other hand, they are unconsciously repeating a lot of those different patterns, whether it's dealing with authority or not being able to receive authority and what the authority is saying versus being able to step into that authority. So you have this being authority and receiving authority that ends up being a big part of this and also the boundaries that are also happening there. So what are the ways that you kind of have that tight container and being able to say no and to have that structure. So there's certain universal themes that everybody has to deal with boundaries. Everybody has to deal with authority to a certain extent. And so in this situation, I kind of disagree with the jury's framing around this. There's a jury statement from Sundance that says, the jury citation is that this is a film deep dive into grief and the complications of mourning. It has a rigorous and unflinching lens that holds steadfast to the cinematic language the director chose for the film. So they're kind of really centering on different aspects of the mourning and the grief, which is a part of it. But for me, this is really at the heart of film about interpersonal communications and dealing with authority and boundaries. For me, those were the consistent themes that came up again and again.
[00:10:03.643] Wonder Bright: Yeah, exactly. I completely agree with you and disagree with that Sundance jury statement. I started off by saying this is a film about the nature of witnessing like it explores it intentionally and specifically like what is it to witness somebody as they face their own mortality. Because the central conflict that erupts in the film is not a patient's resistance to their mortality, and it's certainly not a chaplain's resistance to the mortality. The core conflict that erupts in the film is a conflict between Mati and her supervisor, Reverend David. And the interpersonal dynamics of that and the consternation that it causes each of them. So on the one hand, it's this film that's about communication and the miracle of communication that occurs when we can be present with one another and how there are actual literal specific tools come to find out that you can use. Like there's a technology of language that can be used to aid us in those communications. And yet, and still, we will run into conflict that we are unable to resolve. And so, you know, there's this part of it for me as I'm watching, I'm like, if they can't do it, like, what hope do any of you have? the rest of us have, right? I mean, I think we spoke before, we were talking about the cult at the end of the world and people in this country who are on these like terrible divides. And there's this sense that if we could just agree on something as a container to hold us together, then we would be able to have dialogue within that container. But we can't even agree on baseline reality. And here we have two people in a still small voice who have intentionally agreed to step inside this container of a workplace around which they have very firm structure about how to communicate with one another. And when they reach this conflict, they're unable to resolve it despite their desire to. And I don't know how you felt, but it's helpful for me to unpack this film, because as I was watching it and as somebody who prides herself on an ability to be present and stay with people when they're in difficult situations, I definitely found myself taking a side in this film, like absolutely being like, oh, yeah, that that is the correct take here and getting very frustrated with the other person in the dialogue. And I think it really interfered with my own ability to stay in attention, which I think Lawrenson was able to do throughout the course of the film. I didn't feel like the film had an opinion about which person was correct. I was still able to leave that film with my feeling about who was correct firmly in place. I'd be happy to tell you all about it, but I don't think that would be the correct response because I think this film is actually pointing to something much deeper, which is the fundamental difficulty that comes up when we're having a communication obstacle with another person is not them. It's our own stuff. It's like the thing that we're not able to like break through and be with that other person in a particular way. And it's strange because, you know, on the scale of human tragedy and conflict that we bore witness to in the films this week, this is a small conflict, relatively. So it's just sort of sad to me that these two people, despite what occur as the best conditions for resolution, are still unable to achieve it. And that sadness will stay with me, despite the fact that the film itself doesn't make a decision. It doesn't judge them one way or another. And there is solace in that, right? Like, I have the capacity, even if I have an opinion about who was right and who was wrong, I also have a capacity to step outside of that and see that it's my own participation in that judgment that has me deliver it.
[00:14:36.542] Kent Bye: Yeah, for me, I try to the best I can, like I'll have opinions in the moment, but also just for understanding how these documentaries are made of what's shown, what's not shown, how's it edited, what is there other things that were maybe a previous context that is not there. And so it's hard for me to make moral judgments as to who's right or wrong. I try to really stay in this place of suspended judgment from really not having enough information. Also, the dynamic of documentary films are also that you have these filmmakers that will often go in and they'll get image release forms, and then they will essentially become the creator of the story without much ability for the people who are involved in the stories to have an ability to veto or to dictate how that story will be told. I think that actually comes up in The Stroll where one of the primary filmmakers of that film was talking about realizing how when you're being featured in a film, how little agency you have to how that film is actually being constructed. And so that actually led them into wanting to create their own films in that sense and tell their own stories. So in this sense, I kind of have this unknowing of what degree were the subjects involved with being able to make sure that whatever representation of the events were accurately depicted. I mean, they say at the end that there were some ethical considerations, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that extends to how the story is being told. So it's difficult for me to know for that degree. But I guess what I'm taking away is that, you know, these are people that are in the midst of a pandemic. It's extremely stressful. And it's also a situation where, to what degree is this meant to be a season of what they're doing with their career? And what's the lifetime of how they're focusing on their careers? And so, I think what the film is able to do is kind of capture the heart of these conflicts and to be a bit self-aware of the trauma. And Mati does actually say that her father did die in a sudden way. And you see ways in which that it's a real trauma for her to have this sudden death of her father in a way that maybe she's not fully processed all of her grief because it is coming up in the context of other people's griefs and sometimes she's deliberately and consciously choosing to share this information that's private and other times it may be kind of a reaction to what's happening where she's sharing it. It's hard to know again without having the entire full context of all these conversations to know how everything plays out but you see her in a couple situations of making a conscious choice and potentially making unconscious choices as to what degree she's sharing private information about her own experiences of grief. and to what degree the people on the other end and how they're receiving it and if it's really helping them be seen or be witnessed by having somebody else who has experienced something that's similar in terms of sudden death that she's helping people grieve. So yeah, I feel like What I keep coming back to this film that I guess I want to bear witness to is this capacity for people to be aware of their own trauma and their own story and the ways that they may or not be triggered into these aspects of transference or counter-transference and this depth psychological awareness that these people featured in this film are exhibiting. And also when the pressure cooker is turned up, you know, that's what Robert McKee says is that characters revealed when characters are put under pressure and they have to make choices and take action. And it's from that intensity of pressure, the more pressure that you put under, the more of the potential revealing of the character that you're seeing. So, you know, these people are under the intense cauldron of pressure in the middle of pandemic and seeing little glimmers of their character being revealed, but they're also able to identify different dimensions of what is the root cause of some of that. And the ability to intervene in those moments of whether or not you're in a conscious or unconscious space, I think is the heart of what it means to be human. I mean, we all still get triggered. We all still go into those unconscious places. So I feel like this film is giving people a way to observe that process and as messy as it can get, it's still a part of the human experience of what it means to kind of like navigate your own traumas and grief and also be in communication with people in a clear way.
[00:19:04.611] Wonder Bright: Character may be revealed through being put under pressure, but when you are someone who has suffered pressure from certain disadvantageous systems or traumas, you know, we know that Matias suffered the death of her father, but we don't know what other traumas she suffered. There's no way to judge a character under pressure in the absence of those contexts. And I think it's a bit problematic to think that we can, you know, because we don't know what other pressures that character has been subject to over time. Which is one of the reasons why I think the rules that these co-workers have for communicating where they're coming from is so powerful. And the fact that it ultimately is still found wanting, you know, is a bittersweet experience. But I also want to say in relation to you taking this impartial view because you're aware of like how much may have been left on the editing floor and yada, yada, yada. Are you judging me for being judgmental?
[00:20:11.832] Kent Bye: Yes.
[00:20:12.613] Wonder Bright: I thought so. So let me just acknowledge that I appreciate that impartiality in you and that a way for me to distance myself from my judgments is also to acknowledge them and to use discernment in the way that I'm experiencing them. And I actually think that is the better part of communication, to be able to own your own place in it, you know. Obviously, I am aware that there's going to be edits and we don't have the full story. We have the story that the filmmaker felt was going to do justice to the story that he wanted to share. But that is the story that we have to judge. And by judge, I don't want to be in the state of judgment. I want to be in the state of discernment. So me recognizing that I have those judgments is me achieving discernment. But ultimately, we just have the story that has been given to us. So that is what I'm attempting to discern. And part of my discernment in this instance It comes from the space of, I'm having judgment. Oh my God, this is so meta. Holy crap. Luke Lawrenson. Well done. Because I'm having the experience that he's showing on the screen. Like this is, that is the gift of the documentary process and capturing it well is that you're recreating in the individual the experience that you watched unfold. Right. So whether that's the whole and complete experience, well, of course, it's not. You know, there's no way to have a whole and complete experience. We can sometimes feel whole and complete, but it's fleeting. So, I mean, this is the best that we can do. And I think this film is a bittersweet, very loving attempt to document that process.
[00:22:16.004] Kent Bye: Yeah, so yeah, I recognize the incomplete nature. And between the two of us, you are the reader of the Reddit of Am I the Asshole?
[00:22:29.093] Wonder Bright: I'm used to owning my judgments.
[00:22:30.974] Kent Bye: It's all about making moral judgments about who is in the right and who's in the wrong. But yeah, I'd love to hear what you're bearing witness to. And it's still a small voice.
[00:22:41.935] Wonder Bright: I really want to bear witness to the act of bearing witness that I just feel like this film is a direct experience of what it's like to bear witness all the way through. And how difficult that can that can truly be, even when you're literally trained to do it and your whole intention is to achieve it. It's like the Army slogan, be all that you can be. It's not possible. It's the attempt that's important.
[00:23:13.891] Kent Bye: Yeah. Yeah, so that was A Still Small Voice by Luke Lorentzen. It was a part of the Sundance 2023 U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance, and it won the Best Directing Award of the documentary competition there. At this point, no distribution that's been announced yet, but again, it's represented by Synetic Media, has a good chance of potentially getting picked up somewhere. We'll see. And thanks again for joining us for Story All the Way Down podcast, where we're covering Stories that go all the way down into the core of our being or we can bear witness to And yeah, if you want more information you can go to story all the way down calm where you can find more information about the podcasts and find ways that you can support the podcast and Spread the word tell your friends. So thanks for joining us.
[00:24:03.266] Wonder Bright: Can I take a shot? Yes Thanks for joining us on Story All the Way Down. If you want to find out more, visit storyallthewaydown.com and look for show notes and hopefully future notes on whether or not these films have been released and ways that you can support the podcast and find out more about what we're doing.
[00:24:22.749] Kent Bye: Thanks, y'all.
