New Documentary CHAPLAINS Premieres on World Channel Tonight

CHAPLAINS is a new documentary that goes inside the dynamic and challenging world of chaplains, men and women who represent their own particular faith tradition but who are trained to be of comfort and support to people of all faiths -- or to those who profess no faith.

Watch the trailer here

CHAPLAINS is the latest film from Martin Doblmeier, whose award-winning films on faith and spirituality include Bonhoeffer, The Adventists and The Power of Forgiveness. Presented by Maryland Public Television and distributed by American Public Television (APT), CHAPLAINS premieres Monday, December 7 at 7 pm ET / 9 pm PT on public television's World Channel.

With a tradition dating back centuries, chaplains today are on the front lines, often in the midst of life-and-death situations, where the questions are the deepest and the need for spiritual and pastoral care the greatest. From the war zone to the workplace, chaplains serve as pastor, social worker, counselor, and bridge builder, and "lean into the painful places," as prison chaplain Karuna Thompson says.

While there have been chaplains on the battlefield for centuries, today's battlefields can be anywhere people experience danger or despair or where they simply need a spiritual connection. CHAPLAINS, which is structured as a series of stories, follows a unique group of dedicated men and women into a multitude of arenas where they offer help and support: the battlefields in Afghanistan, a motion picture retirement home in Hollywood, a poultry processing plant in Tennessee, a state penitentiary in Oregon, the U.S. Congress, at a hospital bedside, and at a NASCAR racetrack.

Through diverse stories, CHAPLAINS offers an engrossing and thought-provoking look at brave men and women on the frontiers of faith, whose work crosses denominational differences and provides comfort to a broad cross-section of people eager for help and comfort.

Among the chaplains featured in the film are Rev. Paul Hurley, a U.S. Army colonel and Catholic priest who was the senior military chaplain in Afghanistan; chaplains who serve in the workplace at Tyson Foods; Kathleen Ennis-Durstine, senior chaplain at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; and Buddhist Karuna Thompson, who works at Oregon State Penitentiary. Others include Billy Mauldin and Nick Terry, who work with the NASCAR community; the Motion Picture and Television Fund's chaplain Rabbi ARTHUR Rosenberg; Khalil Refai, a volunteer chaplain for the Hamtramck, Michigan Police Department, and the two chaplains in Congress, Rev. Pat Conroy, a Jesuit priest who serves the House of Representatives, and Barry Black, the first African-American admiral in the U.S. Navy and now Senate chaplain.

Major funding was provided by Lilly Endowment, Inc., The ARTHUR Vining Davis Foundations, The Henry Luce Foundation, The Fetzer Institute and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

About Journey Films
Journey Films was founded in 1984 by award-winning filmmaker Martin Doblmeier as a television and film production company specializing in religion, faith and spirituality. Journey has produced more than 30 documentary films that have aired on PBS, ABC, NBC, the BBC and on broadcast outlets around the world. Journey's films have been translated into more than a dozen languages. The early films introduced the American audience to the faith communities of Taize and L'Arche. Biographical documentaries followed with profiles on Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, the celebrated German theologian and Nazi resister Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the architect of the Catholic Church's Vatican II - Cardinal Suenens. More recently The Power of Forgiveness won many top awards and inspired a companion book. A profile of the Washington National Cathedral won a regional Emmy and The Adventists films became a popular series on PBS stations and a best-selling DVD on Amazon. In all, Journey's films have won six Gabriel Awards for the nation's best film on a topic of religion, three awards at the US International Film and Television Festival, the Sun Valley Film Festival and many others.

Need more TV Theatre News in your life? Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...