A film inspired by ‘The Pitt’ consultant Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is now showing across the country

“In Good Hands”, a short film inspired by the memoir of Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, assistant professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, recently screened at the International Black Film Festival in Nashville. The film will be shown on a pop-up tour hosted by ABFF in four major cities throughout the country including in New York at the AMC Lincoln Center on Oct. 25 and 26, and then in Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles.   

“In Good Hands,” which was selected as a finalist for the HBO Short Film Showcase in the American Black Film Festival in Miami, tells the story of a pediatric emergency physician navigating the challenges brought on by two patients. The incidents in the film were drawn from the real-life experiences of Owusu-Ansah, who consulted on HBO’s Emmy-winning drama “The Pitt.” (She’s pictured above with two of its stars.)

[Read more about how this Pitt doctor lent her voice to the hit TV show.]

The film was written by Yasmine Crawley, a former CBS Page who currently works as an assistant and production associate at See it Now Studios, which produces documentaries and unscripted series for Paramount+ and CBS. In 2021, Crawley and Owusu-Ansah participated in the PITTch Storytelling Initiative, which was funded by a Richard King Mellon Foundation grant to help create more local career opportunities in Southwestern Pennsylvania’s growing film industry.

“In Good Hands” was produced by Carl Kurlander — screenwriter of “St. Elmo’s Fire” and a writer and producer for “Saved By the Bell” — who moved back to his hometown to teach at the University. Since then, he has produced award-winning documentaries on the Salk polio vaccine, transplant pioneer Tom Starzl and a new film on playwright August Wilson. He is also the founding producer of the Pittsburgh Lens for Pitt’s Center for Creativity, which sponsored the PITTch competition.