Cameron Joy Gray is illuminating the lives of young medical students in her upcoming documentary, “The White Coats Are Coming,” screening at Temple’s Diamond Screen MFA Showcase October 11th  at the Reel. 

 

“The White Coats Are Coming” highlights rising BIPOC medical professionals in the Philadelphia area as they prepare to debut in a field historically unkind to their communities. 

 

Cameron received her bachelor’s degree in film from Syracuse University where she directed “The Bootyshort Revolution,” before pursuing a master's degree at Temple University and serving as a university fellow. 

 

Cameron’s work explores themes of systemic oppression and empowerment, and her upcoming documentary is no exception. “What can we be doing differently? What needs to stay? What needs to change,” Gray posed in a recent interview. 

 

Gray grew up in D.C. and currently works there as a multilingual language teacher in addition to filmmaking.  

 

“We have this concept called ‘trans-languaging,’” Cameron explained, “I'm kind of doing that also as a filmmaker. What's the main idea? How do we break it down into its most essential parts? And then, how do we make other people understand that? Even though this is medical language, it's still this kind of translation.” 

 

The process, which mainly followed the stories of students Kayla Davenport and John Beshara, felt fulfilling to both the crew and the medical cast.  

 

Cameron believes that “it was this mutual thing where people in medicine were seeing that what they're doing is not for nothing. There are people paying attention. And then, you know, filmmakers, we care about telling stories.” 

 

Though the documentary is being screened as a 19-minute piece, Cameron Joy Gray and her team are currently in post-production to release “The White Coats Are Coming” as a feature, including animated aspects. 

 

“This has been the hardest project of my life. And it requires so much stamina.” Gray happily admitted. “I'm just really grateful and excited for what comes next.” 

 

Don’t Miss “The White Coats Are Coming” October 11th at the Reel!