.png)
6000 Waiting - Review
I wish I was more of a thrill seeker, someone who would jump out of a plane, dive off a tall ledge into the sea or land a gnarly 540 on a halfpipe. I am not that though, my most thrilling of thrills is a rollercoaster, a short burst of adrenaline where I am strapped in and can hold on for dear life. 6000 Waiting is a rollercoaster, but instead of bringing you up to the tallest peak before dropping you down, it punches through your chest, rips your heart out, kisses it, juggles with it and then right before it puts it back in your chest, it smothers you in raw onions so you watch the credits through wet eyes. It is a very well crafted, genuine and impactful documentary that really shines a light on individuals that are otherwise perceived as just a number, a bit of paperwork.
Ben Oxley grasps your attention at the start, by literally jumping out of a plane, a thrill not built for me, but certainly built for him. His attitude ties the film together so wonderfully as he details the 6000 Waiting explanation. A waiting list for a waiver in Georgia that allows people with disabilities to control their own lives, with access to assistance not afforded to them without it. To not have the waiver means a lack of support and a constant worry that you will be shipped off to a nursing home. These people are stripped of their identities as friends, neighbours, colleagues, classmates, and (as Nick Papadopoulos puts it) are relegated to one word, residents. They live in nursing homes with underfunded amenities and in most cases, a steadily declining ability to be self sufficient. It seems pretty hopeless, a life no longer their own built from a government who is unwilling to take action. As Ben explains though, these waivers provide hope, they give resources where they were once lacking. Even though the number grows on the waiting list, there is a glimmer of a brighter future knowing that people aren’t staying quiet about this issue.
Although I found this pretty difficult to watch, you get a good amount of levity in the resilience and humanity shown by the three individuals participating in this documentary. I haven’t mentioned Noah and Naomi Williams yet, where I think so much of the hope comes from. Naomi radiates love for Noah, in both how she talks about him and how she looks at him. There is a particular shot of Naomi looking at Noah as she puts him to bed, standing at the door and looking over him that is so impactful. The documentary is full of shots like that, like Nick in the nursing home getting a bed bath, or lifted from his bed. There is so much care in the filmmaking here, getting every possible bit of B-roll to accompany the story, choosing the right music for the moment or creating a really dynamic stop motion animation sequence to explain the origin of the waivers. They also employ some captions throughout to provide context and updates on interviews, which are effective but oddly designed for the content.
Documentary is obviously a powerful medium of storytelling, giving voices to those who are underrepresented, raising issues that are flying under the radar, or teaching you about topics you would have never encountered otherwise. For me, 6000 Waiting does all three to a really high level, all with empathy and an understanding of how to present that information. The film gives humanity to a statistic that is otherwise so easily dismissed. They are able to showcase these stories in a way that you see the trials but understand the goal, and how worth it that goal really is.
Comments