The Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance in Mexico City, competing with other EMTs for patients in need of urgent help. While making a living in this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from jeopardizing the people in their care. When a crackdown by corrupt police forces the family to try legitimizing their operation, their desperate financial situation pushes them into ethically dubious practices even as they continue providing essential emergency medical services.
In humanizing the Ochoas’ ethically compromised business, Midnight Family explores urgent questions around healthcare, the failings of government and the complexity of personal responsibility.
Status
In release
About the Filmmakers
Director/ Producer/ Cinematographer
Luke Lorentzen
Luke Lorentzen is a recent graduate from Stanford University's department of Art and Art History, where he studied Art History and Film Studies. His short film, Santa Cruz del Islote (2014)—a short documentary about a small and densely populated fishing community in Colombia— has won awards at over ten international film festivals including the San Francisco International, Full Frame Documentary, Camden International, and Chicago International. His first feature documentary, New York Cuts (2015), explores six hair salons in disparate cultural enclaves of New York City. The film had its world premiere at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and its US Premiere at the Camden International Film Festival. Luke is also part of the creative team behind the recent Netflix documentary series, Last Chance U. His work explores elements of everyday life, often through rigorous formal means, questioning and experimenting with the ways in which non-fiction stories are told. Originally from Connecticut, Luke is now based in Brooklyn.
Producer
Kellen Quinn
Kellen Quinn graduated from Wesleyan University in 2005 with a dual degree in Film and Russian & East European Studies. After an internship with Albert Maysles, Kellen worked on several short films, music videos and feature documentaries. From 2006 to early 2009, he worked at the Tribeca Film Festival, first on the festival’s original content team, and then in the programming department. From April 2009 to May 2012, Kellen was the deputy director of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. In late 2012 he developed Aeon Video for Aeon Magazine, a curated program of short documentaries that he still manages. In 2016 he was among six producers selected for Impact Partners’ Documentary Producers Fellowship. He currently lives between Minneapolis and New York City where, in addition to his work on Aeon Video, he is producing several feature-length documentaries.