Cast and Crew

Director, Producer, Cinematographer

Peter Nicks’ first feature documentary The Waiting Room, which chronicles a day-in-the-life of an Oakland, CA hospital waiting room, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim, being named by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle as the best documentary of 2012 and shortlisted for an Academy Award. The Washington Post named The Waiting Room one of the “ten best films of 2012” and the film garnered numerous accolades including the Stella Artois Truer The Fiction filmmaking grant, Gotham IFP and Independent Spirit Award nominations for best documentary and a Cinema Eye nomination for best debut feature. Prior to his recent work in film, Nicks worked in television for several years and earned an Emmy for Blame Somebody Else, which explored human trafficking during the Iraq War. Nicks is now developing the second of a trilogy of character-driven films exploring health care, crime and education in Oakland, CA. He received his B.A. in English from Howard University and his M.A. in journalism from UC Berkeley. He lives in Piedmont, CA with his wife and two children.

Producer

Linda Davis is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who has explored topics ranging from art looting during WWII, to the high drama of modern opera, and the plight of Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem. Her experience includes work on several award-winning, feature-length documentaries including The Rape of Europa and Jon Else’s film Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic. She has also shot and directed her own short films, notably At Lula’s, a portrait of beauty and community at a hair salon in Oakland, CA. Most recently she co-produced Nourish: Food + Community, a television special featuring Michael Pollan that asks the question, What is the story of our food? Linda comes to film from the business world where she helped to grow a consumer products company from start-up to an internationally recognized brand.

Producer

Bill Hirsch William B. Hirsch launched his production career in order to produce films dealing with critical, cutting edge political, social and cultural themes. Since establishing Peer Review Films with Scott Verges, he has produced Reversion, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008, and is working on various other projects, including films about the religious right and the literary hoax and cultural icon, JT LeRoy. Bill has been a renowned plaintiff’s class action attorney for over 20 years, playing major roles in such cases as the Lincoln Savings & Loan (Charles Keating) scandal, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the fen-phen drug litigation. Bill graduated from Princeton University with a masters in political theory and Harvard Law School. He has recently served on the Boards of Equal Rights Advocates, the Coro Center for Civic Leadership and the Family Violence Prevention Fund, where he is currently Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee.

Editor, Co-Producer

Lawrence Lerew is an editor who has worked on numerous documentary films including Wounded Knee (2008) and the Oscar-nominated The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009).

Production Credits

Directed by
Peter Nicks

Produced By
Linda Davis
William B. Hirsch

Produced By
Peter Nicks

Co-Producer
Lawrence Lerew

Executive Producer
Scott Verges
Sally Jo Fifer

Director of Photography
Peter Nicks

Edited by
Lawrence Lerew

Sound Recordist
Lawrence Lerew

Original Score by
William Ryan Fritch

Additional Music
B. Quincy Griffin

Field Producers
Emma Cott
Singeli Agnew

Associate Producer
N’Jeri Eaton

Additional Camera
Emma Cott
Singeli Agnew

Assistant Editor
Michael Goodier

Production Manager
David Eisenberg

Timelapse Photography
Petr Stepanek

Production Assistants
Taylor Richard
Patrick Kollman

ACMC Volunteers
Karen Weinbaum
Stephen Chang
Amer Abdulla

Colorist
Ed Rudolph

On-line Editor
Loren Sorensen

On-line Facility
Video Arts
Spypost

On-line Editing Consultant
David O. Weissman

Graphic Designer
Studio Kudos

Audio Post Production
Berkeley Sound Artists

Sound Design and Mix
Jim LeBrecht

Sound Mixer
Dan Olmsted

Sound Editors
Patti Tauscher
Jamie Branquinho
Chase Keehn

Special Thanks
Harrison Altar
Mark Becker
Daniel Boggan, Jr.
Andrea Breaux
James Chan
Tammy Chan
Carter Clements
Bonni Cohen
Elizabeth B. Crabtree
Jon Else
Rob Epstein
Jeffrey Friedman
Kenneth Garkow
Dorothy Graham
Mable Haddock
Alden Harken
Ira Hirschfield
Sandra Itkoff
Denise Kirk
Robert A. Lake
Wright Lassiter, III
Wendy Levy
Bill Manns
Jim Mittelberger
Stanley Nelson
Vanna Nicks
Alex Nigg
Helen Park
Arnold Perkins
Teri Reynolds
Stephanie Rodgers
Natalie Roe
Sophie Santee
Ellen Schneider
Evan Seevak
Steve Shortell
Shoshana Signer
Barry Simon
Ken Taymor
Corean Todd
Patricia Van Hook
Charlotte Wills
Gary & Lesley Zalewski

Executive Producer for ITVS
Sally Jo Fifer

Major funding for this film was provided by
The MacArthur Foundation
The San Francisco Foundation

Additional funding provided by
Pacific Pioneer Fund
The San Francisco Film Society

The Waiting Room is a co-production of Open’hood, Inc. and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), in association with Peer Review Films.
The Waiting Room was produced in part with the support of Firelight Media.

The Waiting Room is produced by Open’hood, Inc. which is solely responsible for its content.

CAST

Patients

Demia Bruce	Eric Morgan	Davelo Lujuan	Carl Connelly
Barbara Johnson

Staff

Certified Nurse Assistant Cynthia Y. Johnson	Registered Nurse Liz Lynch	Resident Dr. Douglas White	Resident Dr. Matthew Rehrer
Attending Physician Dr. Amandeep Singh	Resident Dr. Aaron Harries	Attending Physician Dr. Jocelyn Garrick	Social worker Ricka White-Soso