The Safety Net (2023)
Short documentary film (RT: 16 minutes)
In Detroit, a city with crumbling health infrastructure, a fragmented network of safety net providers ensures that the city's most vulnerable residents' needs are met.
At the heart of this effort, the unsung heroes of nurses, medical students and volunteer physicians perform outreach and care.
In 2019, Dean Carpenter, a nurse with the Neighborhood Service Organization's Tumaini Center, supports a team of Wayne State medical students to tend to people on the street, facilitating free care and prescription medication. But his unexpected demise just before the COVID-19 pandemic forces the local service community to reckon with the precariousness of what's been lost.
Screenings: 2024 Prison City Film Festival, 2024 Freep Film Festival, 2024 Duke Independent Film Festival (Winner: Best Documentary), 2023 Michigan Street Medicine Symposium
PBS premiere on Detroit Public Television, watch it here.