--
(Above: Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare)
By Stephanie Ornelas
Filmmaking plays an important role in our lives when it comes to shining light on essential people, and there's no question that nurses are essential. They are the heart and soul of the health care industry.
May 6 was the first day of National Nurses Week, leading up to International Nurses Day on May 12. And while most of us are familiar with the honorary week, few might know that the international holiday - observed around the world - is also the birthday of Florence Nightingale, known as the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while managing and training nurses during the Crimean War, laying the foundation of professional nursing with her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London.
At times, we can lose sight of just how much nurses give to their jobs on a daily basis. But cinema can help with that. Here are five films that premiered at past Sundance Film Festivals that prove it takes true grit to be a nurse:
In the Same Breath
If there's one thing we learned from the pandemic, it's that not all heroes wear capes. If they did, every frontline nurse in a COVID-19 ward would have one. In this documentary, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the origin and spread of the novel coronavirus - from the earliest days of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, to its rampage across the United States - is recounted. With emotional accounts and startling footage, the film traces a map of cover-ups and misinformation while also highlighting the strength and resilience of those who tried to communicate the truth. (Available to stream on HBO Max)
We Were Here
The award-winning 2011 Sundance Film Festival documentary centers around five people who lived through the AIDS epidemic, including Eileen Glutzer, a nurse who worked in the AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital from the beginning of the epidemic. We Were Here illuminates the profound personal and community issues raised by the AIDS epidemic, as well as the broad political and social upheavals it unleashed. Documenting what was callously called the Gay Plague in the early 1980s, the film provides insight into what society could, and should, offer its citizens in the way of medical care, social services, and community support. (Available to rent on AppleTV and Amazon)
Precious
In the film, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Claireece Precious Jones lives in the toughest of situations as she suffers constant abuse at the hands of her own parents. But the 16-year-old leans on people like Nurse John (Lenny Kravitz), the charming rock star of the hospital ward, and her wise and patient new teacher Ms. Rain (Paula Patton). When Precious is offered the opportunity to transfer to an alternative school, she instinctively sees a chance to turn her life around. (Available to stream on Peacock)
Knock Down the House
A registered nurse in Missouri, a young bartender in the Bronx, a coal miner's daughter in West Virginia, and a grieving mother in Nevada build a movement of insurgent candidates to challenge powerful incumbents in Congress. In the 2018 cycle, registered nurse Cori Bush ran with over 50 candidates from across the nation on both the Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats slates. Her 2018 campaign was featured in the documentary, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and won the Festival Favorite Award selected by the audience. As a single parent, registered nurse, ordained pastor, activist, and community organizer, there is not a day that goes by when I don't feel the impact of a government that doesn't work for us, Bush wrote back in 2019. (Available to stream on Netflix)
Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival documentary shines light on struggling health care facilities, what the busy doctors and nurses do on a daily basis to provide care to their patients, and what can happen when they aren't given the right support and tools to manage their workload. Award-winning filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke follow dramatic human stories, as well as leaders fighting to transform health care at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government, and even the U.S. military. (Available on the Roku Channel.)
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
27/04/2024
Two environmentally-focused groups are partnering to engage the unscripted TV world in finding better ways to address climate change. Reality of Change is an ec...
27/04/2024
Sarah Garcia has been promoted to weekend anchor at KTLM McAllen, Texas, known as Telemundo 40. Starting April 27, she will anchor Noticias Telemundo 40 weekend...
27/04/2024
CBS Sports said it launched a new 24-hour free, ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted to the UEFA Champions League....
27/04/2024
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $35.4 million in compensation in 2023, up 11% from the previous year, according to a proxy statement filed by th...
27/04/2024
Art Happens Here With John Lithgow, which sees the actor study dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz with students in Los Angeles, debuts on PBS ...
27/04/2024
Remember Leave It to Beaver? Bewitched? Dragnet? When cable ratings were rising?...
27/04/2024
Next up for the weekend binge at Catchy Comedy is Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Every weekend, Catchy Comedy features The Catchy Binge, a marathon of a classic sitcom....
26/04/2024
Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks-off today with screenings in 5 theaters in Mexico City and the opening-night film, FRIDA, directed by Carla Guti rrez...
26/04/2024
[Editor's Note: This interview is part of a larger feature about the women d...
26/04/2024
Once again this year, SGL Carbon opened its doors to interested children and young people. On the occasion of the German Girls and Boys Day, which took place on...
26/04/2024
Orders1 of $5.5 billion; book-to-bill of 1.06x
Revenue of $5.2 billion, up 17%,...
26/04/2024
Five Considerations For Communications Modernization In The 21st Century
In the digital-enabled battlespace, the Joint Force needs to shoot, move and communica...
26/04/2024
CBS Sports has launched Champions League as a new, 24-hour streaming channel that will serve as the year-round destination for nonstop highlights of the UEFA ...
26/04/2024
Despite tough competition in the streaming space, Roku reported solid results in Q1 2024, beating revenue expectations, with total net revenue up 19% YoY to $88...
26/04/2024
LONDON AND TORONTO Pinewood Toronto Studios has appointed Sarah Farrell as general manager of the Studios in downtown Toronto....
26/04/2024
Quantum to Offer Advanced Filesharing Technology and Performance in StorNext and...
26/04/2024
FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2024 entries and introduces new Emerging Talen...
26/04/2024
Picture Shop Announces Chris Evans as Head of Unscripted
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
Picture Shop announced Chris Evans will lead Unscripte...
26/04/2024
Participate in a Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this survey,...
26/04/2024
Toy maker Mattel said it is working with Samsung to launch its first free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels later this year....
26/04/2024
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) said it named Marty Moe as president....
26/04/2024
Ron Howard is the director on Jim Henson Idea Man, a documentary that premieres on Disney Plus May 31. Henson of course created Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big...
26/04/2024
The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast...
26/04/2024
Heading into the upfronts, Warner Bros. Discovery said it launched Olli, a first-party data platform advertiser can use for converged, targeted advertising camp...
26/04/2024
CBS has renewed the drama The Equalizer, which will see season five on in 2024-2025. Queen Latifah stars....
26/04/2024
The CW has entered into an exclusive multiyear broadcast partnership for the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Teen USA Pageant. The 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air ...
26/04/2024
Fuse Media isn't mincing words in a campaign urging its young viewers to register and participate in the 2024 elections....
26/04/2024
Dead Boy Detectives, a series from Neil Gaiman about a detective agency staffed by ghosts, debuts on Netflix April 25. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri are in t...
26/04/2024
The Story Collective has gradually repurposed the former Mortlake Brewery to include production offices, workshops and sound stages
By Matthew Corrigan
Publi...
26/04/2024
Perkett joins the company following a 25 year career in product management, product marketing, engineering and user experience (UX) across multiple industries
...
26/04/2024
Teradek, the industry leader in wireless video transmitters and receivers, announced today the launch of new Bolt 6 LT 750 and Bolt 6 Monitor Module 750 RX with...
26/04/2024
NEW YORK Amagi has appointed Richard Perkett chief product officer (CPO)....
26/04/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced the results of the 2024 NAB Radio and Television Board of Directors elections. The...
26/04/2024
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. & NEW YORK Mattel has announced a deal to launch its first three 24/7 free ad supported streaming (FAST) channels on Samsung TV Plus, Samsung...
26/04/2024
PORTLAND, Maine Viewers here can now receive the NextGen TV signals of five local stations with the launch of ATSC 3.0 service from host station WPFO, which is ...
26/04/2024
TORONTO Rogers Communications has signed a 10-year agreement with Comcast to bring the latest Xfinity products and technology to Canadians....
-- 
