Skip to main content
Nurse Unseen film image; black and white photograph of a row of nurses

Nurse Unseen

This event has passed

Filipino nurses can be found in every hospital across North America. They constitute 4% of the U.S. nursing population, yet 31.5% of COVID-19 nurse deaths were Filipino… What does this startling fact tell us about endemic racism and class? The latest documentary from Emmy-winner Michele Josue (Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine; Happy Jail) does several things: it gives the personal story of a close-knit group of friends and colleagues who have worked in intensive care and ER units for decades, and who stepped up to put themselves on the front lines during the pandemic; it explains how Filipinos came over to North America in such numbers in the first place, and particularly in the nursing field; and it takes us through their traumatic experience of COVID-19, when they had to contend with both a deadly virus, and with anti-Asian racism fuelled from the very top of the establishment. Nurse Unseen is a loving tribute to these unsung heroes.

 

Nov 15 & 17: Q&A with director Michele Josue

 

To say that Nurse Unseen is an emotionally resonant film is an understatement. The film soars with its personal stories and aching vulnerability.

Richard Propes, The Independent Critic

A fantastic and engaging historical and relevant document.

Bobby Lepire, Film Threat

Director

Michele Josue

Country of Origin

USA

Year

2023

Language

In English and Tagalog with English subtitles

19+
93 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Also Playing

Tornado

Dir. John Maclean
91 min

Scotland in the 1790s, travelling circus samurai Tornado (Kōki) runs afoul of a band of murderous brigands led by Tim Roth and his ambitious son, Jack Lowden. Mayhem ensues.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Dir. Laura Piani
94 min

Falling between Bridget Jones and Past Lives, this Anglo-French charmer is a classic rom-com with a literary flavour. Agathe aspires to being a writer and dreams of romance. An invite to a Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England promises both...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

April

Dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili
134 min

A doggedly mysterious and haunting account of an investigation into the professionalism of a Georgian Ob-Gyn, Nina, accused of negligance, Dea Kulumbegashvili's film has been compared to the work of masters like Haneke, Glazer and Reygadas.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Fire

Dir. Deepa Mehta
104 min

Deepa Mehta's tender and tumultuous love story between two women, finding comfort in each other in resistance to India's patriarchal society.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre