Watch the trailer above.
By: Teresinha Medeiros, Communications Coordinator at Windsor Regional Hospital
If you watched the three-minute trailer of an upcoming documentary on the field hospital at the St. Clair College SportsPlex, you likely shed a few tears.
But Toronto Film Director Matt Gallagher hopes people will feel some sense of hope for the future after the 90-minute documentary 'Dispatches From A Field Hospital' is aired on March 16th at 9pm on TVO.
"What I found inspiring about documenting these journeys is that we are a resilient bunch," says Gallagher.
Born and raised in Windsor, Gallagher originally asked to be embedded in the field hospital for a few months to film what was happening inside, but that plan was firmly rejected for safety reasons.
Gallagher says he 'parked the idea' but then his father, a resident at Heron Terrace tested positive for COVID-19. Worried that he would never see his father again, his mother would describe for him the Skype calls and how hospital staff assisted in making the connections.
"And that's how the idea of Dispatches From A Field Hospital was born," he recalls as it became quickly obvious to him that one of the most heartbreaking aspects of this pandemic is the inability of families to be at the bedside next to their loved ones.
He contacted other patient's families and became a 'fly on the wall during those conversations.'
"It was a privilege as a filmmaker for these families to allow me to document this time in history," he says.
He is grateful that his father was one of the lucky ones who later returned to the retirement home, but he notes the documentary also shows the grief of those families whose loved ones did not survive.
The powerful film also shows an often untold side of the Field Hospital and how hospital staff physically cared for the patients, but also emotionally cared for them too by entertaining them. Gallagher remembers housekeeping staff stepping up to be Bingo callers to try and help distract patients from the reality of the situation as care and compassion go beyond medical care.
Note: The documentary will also air Saturday, March 20th 10:30pm and on Sunday, March 21 10:30pm.