"And they have no understanding of what your body is going through right now..." - a statement from a woman holding a hand of a dying patient . Hospital chaplains (all women) are in the "selfgroup" room discussing the feeling of anger and helplessness ... and that picture sets the tone for the rest of this documentary! "A feeling of hitting a wall..." is what the chaplain of that group explained and others agreed - and I can accept that as an accurate assessment of today's health providing - an industry making huge profits while people who are involved and care are frustrated with everything happening around those rooms! Patients get diagnosis but they cannot relate to it... they just wait to see with the intentions to live with quality... and the bullying usually finishes with a chemo as a result.

One of the patients mentioned the word "Unfairness...", and I think everyone there was agreeing with her, but not much could be done to change that for any of them. Very early doctors find the way to diagnose anything then start the "therapy" in which the patient hears "a small still voice" and then they try to "maintain integrity" and go "their own pace"! The chaplain is advised to manage her empathy and not to fully exhaust herself dealing with the patients, which they start describing as "cases" - even the 17 years old.

This is a documentary that points at the things but never offers any solution. Deep breaths, mind setting... seems like only way of "solving the problem" so there is no wonder that the anger and the frustration are the most common result as the chaplains "progress" and recognizing what've they become.

After 30 minutes becomes repetitive in most of the parts. The most annoying thing was that these "spiritual" people were wearing the masks all the time. And that "they had no idea where their prayers were going". So much about the faith! Then one of them started with the story of family members "surviving the gas chambers in Aushwitz", even after historical proof that those never physically existed in that place.

At some point around the half of the film one of the chaplains explained the "Jewish perspective" of her profound grief and reaching a "place in comfort"... sounded like a mambo-jumbo excuse for "I have no idea"! One of the patient, and African woman, came with a pancreatic cancer to the hospital and died with 3 more things added, one of them a liver failure! Then, you have a Jewish "chaplain" like Margaret Mati Engel telling some bull to that Christian lady while looking at her with a look of a lunatic! I really do not think Luke Lorentzen chose the right person for this documentary, then, maybe he had no say in it!

So, I would put this in a "wasted time" basket!

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"A Still Small Voice" is about an aspiring hospital chaplain begins a yearlong residency in spiritual care, only to discover that to successfully tend to her patients, she must look deep within herself. The film explores throughout from long takes of discussions with patients, nurses, and hospital workers as the camera observes and sits there throughout without much movement. For the most part, it remains interesting.

The discussion provided by each participants feels nature and all words felt they were coming right from their heart on how they feel and what they believe in. The technical aspects were great as the camerawork and sound design offer great insights of the environment. The pacing is slow and there are moments that felt clunky and some discussion moments that did feel a little laughable.

But the film does a pretty good job exploring the insight of spiritual care amongst hospital workers. Hospital workers are some of the most stressful positions in the United States and having to understand their sides and seeing what they are going through is quite interesting.

Pacing needs improvement but that's about it.

Rating: B+