EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker and YouTube creator Aneri Shah’s compelling directorial debut I’m Doing My Job is about to reach a wide audience.

The 50-minute documentary follows six South Asian and African American female emergency physicians in New York and Chicago “as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic alongside motherhood, multigenerational family expectations, cultural identity, caregiving and the demands of emerging as leaders during an unprecedented medical crisis.” It premieres October 12 across Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube Movies and Vimeo On Demand. The film comes to Tubi and other streaming services later this fall.

In the trailer, which you can watch above, one of the doctors says, “I feel like I went to work every day thinking, ‘Dang, am I gonna die? Am I going to work and die?’” Another says, “I felt so anxious I almost puked. I’ve never felt that way going to work before.”

The origins of the documentary go back to 2020 when the filmmaker’s cousin, an ER physician in Brooklyn who had recently returned from maternity leave, “was instructed to prepare a will as COVID cases surged,” according to a release. “She asked Shah whether she would care for her newborn son if something happened to her and her husband. Shah began recording their daily conversations, eventually creating a short video that circulated widely through quintessential South Asian community WhatsApp groups, each containing hundreds to thousands of members. Other women physicians began reaching out with their own experiences, leading Shah to expand the project into a feature documentary.”

The film centers on Dr. Shivani Mody, Dr. Ameera Haamid, Dr. Shazia Sohrawardy, Dr. Sabena Vaswani, Dr. Smruti Desai and Dr. Humaira Ali. “Their stories move between the emergency room and home, capturing the overlapping responsibilities they carried as doctors, mothers, daughters and members of immigrant and multicultural families.”

In a statement, Shah said, “I made this film because, for the first time, I got to speak to South Asian and Black women about their deepest fears, hopes and vulnerabilities and watch them surrender and just ‘be.’ I love these stories. I love these women. This film is my love letter to them.”

I’m Doing My Job is produced by Aneri Shah Studios. Monkey Wrench Films (Into the Unknown, The Forgotten Occupation, Who Is Stan Smith?, Pay Dirt: The Story of Supercross) is distributing the film.

“I’ve spent a lot of the past decade making films about first responders,” said Tom Putnam, SVP of Distribution, Monkey Wrench Films. “When I saw I’m Doing My Job, I felt Aneri had captured something we hadn’t seen enough of during COVID: what these women were carrying at work and at home. I wanted to help get their stories in front of as big an audience as possible.”

Matthew Mills, founder of Spacestation, serves as executive producer on the project alongside Shah. Sharika Ajaikumar and Kopal Goyal edited the film; Erika Kramer is director of photography. The documentary features an original score by Grammy-nominated composer Priya Darshini, with musicians including Max ZT on hammered dulcimer, Moto Fukushima on bass and Grammy-nominated cellist Dave Eggar. The score is expected to receive a separate album release following the film.

“When crisis strikes, people reveal their truest selves,” Shah writes in a director’s statement. “Watching women of color and daughters of immigrants revel in their multitudes and show what an empathic leader looks like is the therapy I didn’t know I needed. It is profound that we never mention that all the subjects are women of color. I believe true progress is when we can take universal stories and have race, ethnicity, and gender as the multi-layered backdrop rather than main stage.”

Watch the trailer for I’m Doing My Job above.