Directed by Peter Nicks
A day in the life of a public hospital's ER waiting room captures what it means for millions of Americans to live without health insurance.
The Waiting Room is a character-driven documentary film that uses extraordinary access to go behind the doors of an American public hospital struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients. The film - using a blend of cinema verite and characters' voiceover - offers a raw, intimate, and even uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers each cope with disease, bureaucracy and hard choices.
The ER waiting room serves as the grounding point for the film, capturing in vivid detail what it means for millions of Americans to live without health insurance. We witness the minute-by-minute Sisyphean struggle that plagues public hospitals, where emergency rooms have to field the overwhelming health care needs of the inner city. Young victims of gun violence take their turn alongside artists and small business owners who lack insurance. The film weaves the stories of several patients - as well as the hospital staff charged with caring for them - as they cope with the complexity of the nation's public health care system, while weathering the storm of a national recession.
The Waiting Room lays bare the struggle and determination of both a community and an institution coping with limited resources and no road map for navigating a health care landscape marked by historic economic and political dysfunction. It is a film about one hospital, its multifaceted community, and how our common vulnerability to illness binds us together as humans.
Awards
~ Shortlist Best Documentary, Academy Awards
~ Best Documentary, San Francisco Film Critics Circle
~ Audience Award, Golden Gate Award & Best Bay Area Documentary, San Francisco International Film Festival
~ Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
~ Special Jury Mention, AFI/Discovery Channel, Silverdocs
~ Best Documentary Nominee, Gotham Independent Film Awards
~ Special Jury Mention, Ashland Independent Film Festival
~ Best Documentary, Camden International Film Festival
~ Best Bay Area Documentary, SF Weekly
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