The White Savior Sin of A Still Small Voice

“Don’t just do something, stand there (or be there)” is the directive of Reverend David Fleenor, turning the “don’t just stand there, do something” admonition upside down. Or perhaps right side up. For attentiveness is crucial to this religious leader dauntingly tasked with supervising a group of aspiring chaplains, including a viscerally vulnerable protege named Mati Engel, as they undertake an emotionally exhausting residency in the spiritual care department of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital. But the mantra could likewise apply to award-winning filmmaker Luke Lorentzen (2019’s Sundance-premiering Midnight Family) who has a knack for bearing silent witness through his cinéma vérité lens. That said, the intimate collaboration that led to his Sundance-debuting followup A Still Small Voice — and also to Lorentzen receiving an “honorary certificate” at the end of filming the yearlong program (not to mention the US Documentary Competition Best Directing award in Park City) — is both extraordinary and somewhat troubling.

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