MIDNIGHT FAMILY

Writer & Director
Luke Lorentzen
(NEW YORK CUTS)

In Mexico City, the government operates fewer than 65 emergency ambulances for a population of 9 million. This alarming statistic to appear on-screen in fly-on-the-wall documentary feature MIDNIGHT FAMILY is among the first of many staggering observations to be made throughout.

As you may fathom from this fact, the demand of people requiring emergency assistance at once can often far outweigh the supply made available by the government. For the Ochoa Family, and many others, this shortfall presents an opportunity – to operate their own private ambulance service! MIDNIGHT FAMILY follows 17 year-old paramedic, Juan Ochoa, his father and younger brother, as they compete with other ambulances to attend various emergency scenes and transport their patients to surrounding hospitals.

Midnight Family (2019)

I must give credit to writer and director Luke Lorentzen for two things – his initiative to capture the dismaying and sometimes confronting footage in a purely observational manner and for his ability to remain non-judgemental. For someone who prides himself on being an open-minded person who doesn’t judge the actions of others, and rather endeavours to understand them, I found myself being greatly challenged! In the Ochoa family’s defence, their need to earn a living is at least resulting in helping those in need whose lives are otherwise in greater jeopardy. They are saving lives. However, it is evident that they are also ill-equipped and lack proper education, training and experience to truly fulfil the role they’re occupying. As such, they are also further endangering lives. Lives that are sometimes, maybe even often, seemingly dependent on which ambulance places first in the race.

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As you will see in MIDNIGHT FAMILY, that’s only part of the issue. I haven’t even touched on the awkward, shady and lack of compassionate financial dealings associated to the business of privately owned and operated ambulance services. Again, by merely observing how this facet of emergency assistance unfolds, we witness how lives are further endangered. It is simply staggering. While my own narrative may be beginning to sound as though a finger of blame is being pointed at the family depicted, I can assure you it is not. Every problem sighted in MIDNIGHT FAMILY can be derived from and solved by the city’s government. As startling as its observations are, this documentary isn’t as comprehensive with information pertaining to the subject as it needs to be in order to understand the bigger picture much better.