93 minutes / 2023 / Color
Director / Producer / Cinematographer / Editor
Produced by Kellen Quinn and Luke Lorentzen
A STILL SMALL VOICE follows Mati, a chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency, as she learns to provide spiritual care to people confronting profound life changes. Through Mati’s experiences with her patients, her struggle with professional burnout, and her own spiritual questioning, we gain new perspectives on how meaningful connection can be and how painful its absence is.
Availble to stream on Mubi
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SELECTED PRESS:
“Absorbing.” “One of the best films of 2023.”
- Alissa Wilkinson, The New York Times
“Exquisite and extraordinarily intimate.”
– Anthony Kaufman, Documentary Magazine
“It’s human and messy — and it’s divine.”
- Amy Nicholson, The New York Times Critics Pick
“A STILL SMALL VOICE is suffused with such sensitivity, poignancy, and artistry that it’s already being hailed as one of the best documentaries of the year. . . . A profoundly piercing chronicle of an individual under pressure and an institution in crisis.”
- Anthony Kaufman, DOC10 Chicago
“Penetrating and deeply moving. . . . Unforgettable.”
– Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
“One of the more fascinating journeys I saw this year.”
– Kim Yutani, Sundance Film Festival Director of Programming
“One of the most rewarding character studies audiences will see this year. . . . therapeutically moving and a work of radical empathy for turbulent times.”
– Pat Mullen, POV Magazine
“At once an eloquent reflection on mortality and a quintessential document of the emotional and spiritual burdens of great responsibility, Luke Lorentzen’s A STILL SMALL VOICE finds the universal in the particular experience of a hospital chaplain . . . . Lorentzen’s incredibly attuned, efficient filmmaking set this film apart in a crowded field of works on life and death and healthcare.”
– Nicolas Rapold, Sight & Sound
“A STILL SMALL VOICE holds wisdom enough to apply to us all. [Mati’s] lack of cynicism and her respect and care for patients and their families is so astounding it feels almost miraculous . . . . The camera sits quietly and nonjudgmentally so that soft-spoken subjects can explore and express the grandest themes imaginable: what it means to live, and how we learn to die.”
– Elizabeth Weitzman, The Wrap
“Give[s] voice to America’s collective grief in a way that little else has.”
– Christian Blauvelt, IndieWire
AWARDS:
Oscars Shortlist for Best Documentary Feature
Best Director for US Documentary, Sundance Film Festival
National Board of Review, Top Five Documentaries of 2023
Cinema Eye Honors, Unforgettables
Special Jury Award, Mammoth Lakes Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature Award at Cinema Columbus
SELECT FESTIVAL SCREENINGS:
Sundance Film Festival, Park City, January 2023
Cleveland International Film Festival, March 2023
Sarasota Film Festival, March 2023
Hong Kong International Film Festival, March 2023
Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, April 2023
DOC10, Chicago, April 2023
HotDocs, Toronto, April 2023
JxJ DC Jewish Film and Music Festival, May 2023
Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, May 2023
DC/DOX, June 2023
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, July 2023
Gimli International Film Festival, July 2023
Rooftop Films / Rockaway Film Festival, August 2023
Melbourne International Film Festival, August 2023
March on Washington Film Festival, October 2023
Dok Leipzig, October 2023
Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, October 2023
Philadelphia Film Festival, October 2023
Indie Memphis, October 2023
Amherst Bellweather Series, October 2023
Mental Health Film Festival Singapore, October 2023
EnergaCAMERIMAGE, Poland, October 2023
Antenna Documentary Film Festival, Sydney, February 2024