The Waiting Room
ABOUT
THE WAITING ROOM is an immersive documentary film that uses unprecedented access to go behind the doors of Oakland’s Highland Hospital, a safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn. Stretched to the breaking point, Highland is the primary care facility for 250,000 patients of nearly every nationality, race, and religion, with 250 patients—most of them uninsured—crowding its emergency room every day. Using a blend of cinema verité and characters’ voiceover, the film offers a raw, intimate, and often uplifting look at how patients, staff and caregivers cope with disease, bureaucracy, frustration, hope and hard choices during one typically hectic day.
Peter Nicks is an award-winning cinematographer/director known for his immersive camera work and cinema vérité style. He helmed the critically acclaimed feature documentary THE WAITING ROOM and the Sundance winning THE FORCE. HOMEROOM, released in 2021, completes this trilogy of timely, immersive docus exploring the interconnected narratives of health care, criminal justice and education in Oakland, CA. Nicks recently released ANTHEM, a feature documentary that follows composer Kris Bowers and producer Dahi on their journey to create a new American anthem. His most recent film, STEPHEN CURRY: UNDERRATED releases nationwide the summer of 2023. Nicks recently co-founded Proximity Media with fellow Oakland-based filmmaker Ryan Coogler and will oversee the nonfiction division. He received his B.A. in English from Howard University and his masters in journalism from UC Berkeley.