Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary film offers the audience a touching story of Karen Kinsell, an extraordinary doctor who lives and works in a small-town Fort Gaines, which is located in the extremely poor Clay County in the southwestern part of Georgia. More than twenty-three years ago, Dr. Kinsell started her solo medical practice there and has been the only doctor in the entire county for more than thirteen years. The population of the county is less than three thousand people, and it continues to decrease due to lack of job opportunities, limited access to healthcare and education, and an aging population.

After growing up in a small-town in Indiana, Karen desired to explore life in a big city and relocated to New York, where she volunteered with the NY City Coalition for The Homeless. Assisting homeless individuals helped her to cultivate specific skills, including problem-solving, patience, compassion, and excellent communication and leadership abilities. During that time, Karen decided to become a doctor and continue helping people at a different level. After completing medical school, she moved to Clay County, Georgia, an area with considerable medical needs.

The filmmakers dedicated approximately two years to observing and documenting the most crucial moments in Dr. Kinsell’s professional life and the challenges she confronts daily as the sole doctor for the entire county. Throughout the years, Dr. Kinsell has offered affordable medical services to anyone who visits her Clay County Medical Center, regardless of their medical insurance status. For instance, she offers only ten dollars fee for uninsured patients. Her unique professional style and unwavering dedication has allowed her to establish trustworthy and friendly personal relationships with her patients.

Dr. Kinsell values her job, but she faces numerous difficulties daily including a high poverty rate among her patients, an outdated medical facility, financial burdens, and lack of access to pharmacy or even a good grocery store in the area. It has been a challenge for her even to refer patients to the hospital because the last hospital in the County was closed in late 1980s and the nearest one is forty miles away in Alabama or another is sixty miles away in Georgia.

The documentary sheds light on Dr. Kinsell’s efforts to improve the healthcare situation in the county. It includes excerpts from the Board meeting at the Clay County Community Health Center, as well as capturing the opinions of residents and stakeholders including Ken Penuel, Vice Chairman of the Georgia Clay County Development Authority, Catherine Rice, Chair of the Clay County Community Health Board, William Burrell, Rev. Warnock Senate Campaign, Charles Duffey, Chief Operating Officer of the Mercer School of Medicine, and Dr. Brad Lian, Director of Rural Health Sciences Program at the Mercer School of Medicine.

The documentary provides an educational and inspiring testimony about the outstanding work of Dr. Kinsell, who has dedicated her life to helping people in need by offering affordable medical care and thereby improving the lives of many. Additionally, it engages the audience in a complex and necessary conversation about poverty, basic rights to healthcare, and affordability and accessibility of medical services in the 21st century. The documentary would be a great addition to both public and academic library collections.

Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.