''The First Wave'' is a 2021 American documentary film, directed and produced by

Matthew Heineman Matthew Heineman is an American filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today", while Anne Thompson of ''Indiewire'' wrote that Heineman is a "respected and gif ...

. The film follows a hospital in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, as it battles the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Alex Gibney Philip Alexander Gibney (; born October 23, 1953) is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, ''Esquire'' magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time". Gibney's works as director include '' ...

serves as an executive producer. It had its world premiere at the

Hamptons Film Festival The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October a ...

on October 7, 2021. It is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2021, by

Neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypton ...

Synopsis

The film follows a hospital in

from March to June 2020, as it battles the

. The film examines structural factors that influenced the initial COVID outbreak and how such factors impact American society more broadly.

Production

In April 2020, it was announced Heineman would direct a documentary film revolving around the

, focusing on health care workers with

set to serve as an executive producer.

reached out to a source from his previous film '' Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare'', to explore access opportunities at different medical facilities in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, with

Long Island Jewish Medical Center Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC or LIJ) is a clinical and academic hospital within the Northwell Health system. It is a 807-bed, non-profit tertiary care teaching hospital serving the greater New York metropolitan area. The campus is e ...

allowing Heineman and his crew to film. Donning the same personal protective equipment as hospital staff, two-person teams deployed to chronicle unfolding events. No crew members contracted the virus during production.

Release

In March 2021,

and National Geographic Documentary Films acquired distribution rights to the film. It had its world premiere at the

Hamptons International Film Festival The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October a ...

on October 7, 2021. It also screened at the

Busan International Film Festival The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF, previously Pusan International Film Festival, PIFF), held annually in Haeundae-gu, Busan (''also'' Pusan), South Korea, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. The first festi ...

and

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

on October 9, 2021. It will also screen at

AFI Fest The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fun ...

in November 2021. It is scheduled to be released in the United States on November 19, 2021. and in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2021, by

Dogwoof Dogwoof is a film-distribution company based in the United Kingdom. History Dogwoof Pictures Dogwoof was founded in 2003 by Andy Whittaker, and originally concentrated on foreign films, including such titles as ''Don't Move'', '' Fateless'', ' ...

Reception

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 96% based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads "''The First Wave'' presents a starkly gripping snapshot of a crisis unfolding -- and its grim toll on those who put their lives on the line to fight it". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:First Wave, The 2021 films 2021 documentary films American documentary films Neon (distributor) films Participant (company) films Documentary films about the COVID-19 pandemic 2020s English-language films 2020s American films Films directed by Matthew Heineman