Plot

Personal storytelling allows one to pour out their story in their own unique voice, making crucial connections otherwise buried in a lifetime of details. The ears lucky enough to hear these stories have the opportunity to see the storyteller in their most complex and naked truth, with context, tone, and all those tells that makes the storyteller a whole person. 'Never This Close' is a short form documentary, which serves as a portrait of a sage like 93-year old man who has been that set of ears thousands of times. Wilber "Wil" Alexander has sat at the bedside of the sick and the dying for the last 40 years, inviting the wounded to tell their stories, walking alongside them and aiding in their search for meaning. The film follows Wil as he uniquely cares for sick, wounded and terminal patients without the modern technology or procedures that define most healthcare practice. We will watch, as what sounds like an unrelated and even dangerous distraction from treatment, becomes one of the most powerful tools in restoration. The healing rounds take on a greater complexity as Wil's own health wains in a way that puts him face to face with his own mortality. This factor propels the medical professionals around him to work tirelessly to find a way to capture and codify his methods in a way that can be taught and replicated by young physicians, nurses and caretakers before its too late to pass on his life's work.