Austin Stark’s Film 'The God Committee' Is A Medical Thriller That Poses Philosophical Questions

The pandemic has raised thorny ethical questions for many people. From uncertainty around what behaviors are acceptable, to dealing with friends who have different kinds of risk assessment, it’s been complicated. For health care professionals, of course, the stakes were much higher: decisions around issues like hospital bed allocation, ventilator access and vaccine priority inevitably mean doctors end up choosing who gets to live and how.

Outside of pandemics, medical professionals still have life-giving power. Austin Stark’s new film “The God Committee” explores the ethical quandary that arises when a wealthy donor tries to bribe a group of doctors to move his son up the organ donation priority list. The doctors debate taking the money, which could be used at the hospital to save many more lives, and ask: is it justifiable to sacrifice one life for the greater good?

Stark wrote, directed, and co-produced “The God Committee,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 20 and is now available on-demand and in some cinemas. Stark was born and raised in New York City, but his family spent summers and weekends in Westhampton Beach, where they had a home.

“I remember I would play like Peewee football in Westhampton, that’s how much time we spent out there,” Stark reminisced in a recent phone interview. “It really was a second home for me. Now, I have a home in Bridgehampton, and I’m there quite frequently year-round.”

Professionally, Stark has another connection to the East End — his first film, a short called “Wrong Number,” premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) back in 2002 and contained a Montauk reference.

“The God Committee” is based on a play of the same name by Mark St. Germain (who coincidentally also wrote “Becoming Dr. Ruth,” the play that recently ran at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor), but the germ of the idea had been in Stark’s head long before the drama came across his desk.

“A friend knew somebody who had bribed a hospital in the Northeast for an organ. I heard that story and I couldn’t believe it,” he explained. “It just stuck with me and then years passed, and Crystal City Entertainment, our production company, had optioned Mark St. Germain’s play. And they sent it to me, and that’s how I got started.”

Though based on St. Germain’s play, the film version is different from it in many ways. The play version is set entirely in the boardroom where the doctors debate who should get a heart that is becoming available. In the film, the action takes place both inside and outside of the hospital — and in two different timelines. The primary one, set in 2014, focuses on the board, which has only one hour to decide who will receive the life-saving organ. A second timeline, in 2021, explores the consequences of the decisions made seven years prior. It also dives into a technology called xenotransplantation, in which organs to be transplanted into humans are grown in animals. Various biotech companies are now using CRISPR in real life to create these organs, and trials are in the animal testing stage, just as portrayed in the film.

“I thought a lot about the decisions we make and how they affect our lives down the line, how they ripple through time, so I thought it was interesting to explore how this one decision could change the course of so many different lives,” Stark said. “It’s not just the play where I was thinking about it on that level, it’s life in general, it’s the decisions we make and the consequences that they have. And I feel like it’s compelling to explore in this format.”

The filmmakers used different color palettes to differentiate between the two timelines. The scenes set in 2014 have a more yellowish hue, while the ones from 2021 are cooler. The cinematographer also switched from primarily static shots to more fluid handhelds for the different timelines, and if viewers begin to feel more claustrophobic as the tension rises, that’s no accident: the film moves from wider shots to tighter framings as the deadline to choose nears.

“So much of this film is set in a hospital, so I wanted to create a unique style. I didn’t want it to look like an ugly hospital, I wanted it to really embrace a style, but live within a world where it feels like it could be any hospital in America,” Stark said.

Many characters in the film are different from the original script, too, with Father Dunbar (Coman Domingo) being the only direct holdover. If a viewer has seen the play, they may still feel some deja vu, because Stark kept much of St. Germain’s sharp dialogue for the boardroom scenes. “Frasier” fans may find it hard to like Kelsey Grammer, who plays Dr. Andre Boxer, a hard-nosed surgeon who has a complicated relationship with the character of Dr. Taylor (played by Julia Stiles).

“I think half of where my skill comes into play is putting [actors] in roles that they can shine in. And, in this film, what I tried to do is cast them in roles people wouldn’t be expecting them to play,” Stark said. “Kelsey Grammer, for example. We sent him the script. We offered him Father Dunbar, actually, which is Colman Domingo’s role in the film.

“And Kelsey read the script. He called me, he said, ‘I love the script and I really want to be a part of this and I would be happy to play Father Dunbar, but what would be really interesting is if I played Boxer … because I’ve just never done that before, I feel like it’ll surprise audiences,’” Stark recalled. “And I thought about it and I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’”

As a filmmaker, Stark focuses on social issues and “The God Committee” is no exception. Beyond exploring the influence of money in America, it also illustrates the worldwide organ shortage. Stark, a registered organ donor, has partnered with Donate Life America to raise awareness of the issue.

“I want this film to inspire people to donate organs. Until they figure out this technology, until they’re able to use CRISPR technology to grow humanized organs and solve the worldwide organ shortage, we need more people to donate.”

The God Committee is available now on-demand and in some theaters. For more information about becoming an organ donor, visit donatelife.net.