EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic is making the Oscar-shortlisted documentary The First Wave available for free for 48 hours, beginning tomorrow. Matthew Heineman’s film, shot in a Queens hospital as New York City endured the initial explosion of Covid, can be seen without commercial interruption through the ABC and National Geographic apps in the U.S., starting Thursday at 12:01 a.m. EST.
The free release marks the two-year anniversary of the first Covid-19 case in the United States to be confirmed by the CDC. The documentary also will be available for free during that two-day window through local ABC station apps in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and Fresno, California. The First Wave will be preceded by a special message from Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, “addressing and thanking frontline workers and medical support staff,” who have selflessly cared for the ill from the outset of the pandemic.
“The First Wave is about many things, but, at its core, it’s about how human beings come together in the face of crisis,” Heineman said in a statement provided to Deadline. “I hope the film serves as an homage to the brave health care workers who have risked their lives on the frontlines of this ongoing pandemic. Now, almost two years into the crisis, they deserve our gratitude and support more than ever.”
Among the main characters in the documentary is Dr. Nathalie Dougé, an internal medicine physician at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, where Heineman and crew filmed for four months.
“This is a film every citizen of the world needs to watch to understand the stress health care workers are under,” Dr. Dougé said. “COVID-19 attacks without remorse and without warning. No health care worker could have been prepared for the early stages of the pandemic. Nonetheless, we endured every challenge and obstacle as best we could while working in New York in the winter and spring of 2020. However, the detrimental effects of the mental strain during that time remain. I hope people honor us by taking this opportunity to understand what we had to endure and continue to endure.”
Heineman, an Emmy winner and two-time DGA Award winner, earned an Oscar nomination for his 2015 film Cartel Land. The First Wave is nominated for a Producers Guild Award and won the Pare Lorentz Award from the International Documentary Association, as well as other honors from the Montclair Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Festival, and the Utah Film Critics Association, which named it best documentary.
Heineman has earned two Courage Under Fire awards from the IDA, recognizing his earlier work shooting drug cartels in Mexico and in dangerous areas of the Middle East. He and his filmmaking team donned PPE to film in the hospital setting, but the director conceded in an interview with Deadline that he initially felt “terrified” at the prospect of entering the medical center at a time when so little was known about Covid.
“We first really in earnest started thinking about the film in early March [2020] as the first cases of Covid hit the U.S.,” Heineman told Deadline. “I wanted to try to humanize this issue that at that point was so relegated to headlines and to stats and, frankly, misinformation. The original impetus was really to try to pay homage to the amazing work that health care workers were doing inside hospitals, something that we weren’t seeing as the general public.”
The First Wave is a Participant production for National Geographic. An impact campaign for the film has joined forces with the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, with the goal of securing passage of The Dr. Lorna Breen Healthcare Provider Protection Act. The legislation “aims to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals,” according to the filmmakers. “The bill passed the House of Representatives in December 2021 and is now awaiting final approval from the Senate.”
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