The Global Search for Education: Director Claire Imler on How the Pandemic Changed the Face of Nursing

Posted By C. M. Rubin on Apr 5, 2022

The acclaimed short film Exposure is now screening on the Planet Classroom Network. Exposure is produced and directed by Claire Imler and is the official winner of the CineYouth Film Festival 2021 Pandemic Cinema Award.

It’s one year after the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns in the United States. In this intimate portrait, Imler gives us a very personal look into how the pandemic has changed the face of nursing.

Imler is an award-winning French-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She joined the FilmEd Academy of the Arts program and discovered her passion for storytelling. Since then, Claire has never stopped creating. Her work has been screened and awarded at over 60 film festivals around the world.

The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome Claire Imler

Congratulations on your excellent short film on the COVID19 pandemic and specifically the work done by our nurses. What do you hope your audience will take away from your film?

I created this film as we were approaching the one year mark of the pandemic. I was interested in showcasing Deanna’s first-hand experience with the pandemic and how it changed the face of nursing. As everything with the pandemic was always changing and evolving, the film now serves as a memoir piece of how Deanna felt in that moment of time, and reflected on her experience at the front lines. I hope audiences watching get a deep understanding of what this period of time felt like for our nurses, and develop a deeper empathy for everything they went through.

Do you believe every nurse’s story is similar to the story told by Deanna Okajima in your film?

While everyone had their own unique individual experience with the pandemic, I do believe Deanna touches upon many important feelings and sentiments that resound within the nursing community.

Can you talk about your creative vision and creative execution when you decided to tell this important story – why did you decide to use the approach you did?

I wanted the film to feel true to Deanna’s unique story and perspective. I decided to follow her for a whole day, and structured the film that way, to give it a more personal touch. In the film, there is one shot that holds steady for a long time while Deanna is inside the patient room. I decided to do that as Deanna was telling me sometimes they have to be in those rooms for 3-5 hours at a time. I wanted the audience to feel that sort of steadiness and exhausting routine procedure, so by holding on that shot it gave audiences time to really process and watch what was happening.

What are you working on now?

Currently, I’ve been working as a freelance filmmaker and photographer. Alongside working with many different clients on a variety of projects, I am working on starting some documentary projects in my free time.