The documentary was shot inside a New York hospital at the start of the epidemic. Matthew Heineman spent four months on the wards of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center filming City of Ghosts.
It looks like a war zone with medics sprinting to the next crisis, pagers buzzing and announcements of critical emergencies. This traumatising is what anyone watching a nurse hold up a phone in a clear plastic bag for her dying loved one will find. The comforting thing about the hospital is how exhausted staff pay attention to the human life in front of them, holding hands with the dying, tenderly stroking their faces.
It is hard to watch, but not hard. Heineman has a camera that is gentle in the room with people at the worst moment of their lives. The medic we spend most time with is a woman of resilience and courage. Covid-19 is a new disease and there are no known patterns. You are always on edge, patients who seem to be improving suddenly and die. You can't breathe a sigh of relief.
Most of the patients of Dr Dougé are black, Hispanic or immigrants. She thinks about her mom every time someone is admitted. The film is aware of the disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on ethnic minorities.
Two patients are frontline workers of colour under 40. A nurse originally from the Philippines, she caught the virus while pregnant. She was put on a ventilator after having an emergency caesarean. Ellis has two small children and works for the NYPD. A nurse says that she sees his kids every time she looks at him.
The film feels like it could be a time capsule, showing future generations what it was like to be on the frontline.
The First Wave is a movie.
