On DVD: CODE BLACK

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 24: CODE BLACK

Ryan McGarry’s inside look into America’s health care crisis made its debut at Los Angeles in 2013, where it won the Best Documentary Award. Other fest appearances include the Hamptons, Vancouver, Heartland, Denver, Santa Barbara, Portland, and Cleveland. In addition to a theatrical release, the film has screened at numerous medical schools around the US and in several other countries.

Shot between 2008 and 2012 by McGarry while he was a resident at LA Country General, this film presents a candid, doctor’s-eye-view of the state of emergency medicine from within the trenches. Beginning in the legendary, cramped C-Booth, the ward where many of the tenets of emergency medicine were originated, the film soon follows its young physician subjects as they adjust to the new demands of a state-of-the-art facility, which basically results in a stifling amount of bureaucratic paperwork that takes time away from actual interactions with patients who need them the most. As waiting times to seek medical attention continue to grow, the residents and staff grow frustrated, turning to unorthodox solutions to try to alleviate the problem, with varying levels of success. In focusing his attention on his experiences as a young physician, McGarry offers an unexpected, compelling perspective on the problems plaguing American health care, and, moreso, a provocation that a solution needs to be found, even if he doesn’t pretend to have an all-encompassing panacea himself.