Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Please support The Waiting Room

One of the more worthy projects over at Kickstarter is The Waiting Room -- What are you waiting for?  This is a moving and important video produced by Peter Nicks and his colleagues about people in an Oakland hospital waiting for and delivering care.  Pete notes, "It's an unfiltered view of patients and caregivers at one public hospital that allows the audience to experience and feel one part of our health care system in a way films rarely do: by placing the voices of patients and caregivers firmly up on stage."

He explains:

From the very beginning, this project has been about giving a voice to the millions of people that lack health care insurance. But it is also very personal for me. The Waiting Room developed from stories my wife, a speech pathologist at Highland Hospital, told me about the struggles and resilience of her patient population. And a few years ago, as the contentious vote for health care reform got louder, it occurred to me that the people who were not participating in the debate were the very people we were fighting over: those stuck in waiting rooms at underfunded public hospitals all over the country.

As the film is independently produced, the Kickstarter campaign is to raise money to launch a grass roots and community outreach initiative to support its release in the fall.  Pete explains, "The more successful these initial openings are, the wider we can expand across the country, bringing the film to more and more people."

The film has gotten excellent reviews and deserves to be seen broadly.  Please support it here.  But do it soon, as there are only a few days left in the Kickstarter campaign.

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