I screened the observational-expository documentary, Healthcare: Your Money or Your Life produced by Downtown Community Television, Manhattan’s public access network. It exposes the reality of healthcare (in 1977) by showing the disparity between two hospitals in Brooklyn directly across the street from each other. One is the public hospital, overcrowded and understaffed, the nurses take out the trash and create makeshift linen bags. A man literally dies on screen because his life support machine malfunctions. The narrator explains that repairs are too expensive to make on the limited budget. Most of the patients are people of color. Across the street “there are no wait times”, they are renovating to provide brand new procedures, there’s tons of space, and most of the patients are white. Additionally the filmmakers spent some time at a health insurance office and a mental health care facility. This program shows the power of portable cameras when put to use for community television for social justice. Unlike much of public access, this program was probably funded by a pretty hefty grant, considering the producers spent “6 months” at the two hospitals.

Alpert, John & Keiko Tsuno. Healthcare: Your Money or Your life. Downtown Community Television, 1977. DVD.