“The Adventists,” is a new documentary film that will air on PBS. Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier explorers the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s health care system. The film comes at a time when the United States Congress debates over health care reform in the U.S.
The documentary re-enacts important events in how the Adventist Church was founded and includes scenes about the Adventist-created Battle Creek Sanitarium. The film highlights Loma Linda University Medical Center’s Dr. Leonard Bailey, who became famous for the transplant of a baboon’s heart to “Baby Fae.” It also follows one family’s fight to keep their 5-month old son alive.
Doblmeier compared The Adventists to one of his previous films (The Power of Forgiveness) in which it was able to start thousand of conversations around the country on the topic of forgiveness.
“I think the same thing can happen with ‘The Adventists’ film, because it speaks to the wider community issues, it speaks to basic human issues of health and holistic living,” said Doblmeier. “Our hope is that maybe over the course of the next couple of years, plenty of conversations will happen around the film and the issues that are raised in the film.”
“The Adventists” is expected to be released on DVD in January 2010 and is scheduled to air on PBS in April 2010.
Below, you can watch the trailer and several clips of the new documentary.
Watch more clips from the film by clicking the link below.