New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Noemi Zeigler, college film professor, is making society take a step back and look at how the healthcare system is set up to let Americans down. Zeigler's latest short movie "Mrs. Sanders," a collaboration with her film students, combines horror and comedy to capture a teacher's desperate scheme to finance her medical procedure.
"Mrs. Sanders" is a story about a college professor who discovers her insurance has declined to cover a medical procedure. She googles "Medicare for All" and up comes an article about Bernie Sanders. She comically makes out with a photo of Bernie on the screen, making it clear Bernie is her savior and therefore the object of her romantic adulation. Things go awry when Mrs. Sanders discovers Bernie's presidential run is being squashed by both establishment Democrats and Republicans alike. Enter her students stage right. They file into class and Mrs. Sanders zeros in on Charlie who takes a seat in the front row. Cue a creepy soundtrack as she endeavors on a scheme to get her medical needs taken care of at Charlie's expense.
Zeigler, an adjunct professor of film and media communications, credits Jordan Peele's breakout movie "
Get Out" for inspiring her to play with the horror genre. Peele describes Get Out as a "social thriller," because it asks the viewer to look at the real life horrors and oppression that African Americans face in everyday life. With Mrs. Sanders, Zeigler decided to examine the horrors suffered by the poor and eroding middle class vis a vis medical care. She accentuates in sharp terms the lack of access to universal healthcare in a country with an $800 billion dollar military budget, corporations that pay zero taxes while their minimum wage workers need food stamps to eat, and health care and pharma industries are only driven by the profit motive while average people resort to rationing their insulin and other meds. And now, with the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, its becoming evident that gaps in health insurance coverage can help speed the spread of the virus.
Approximately 27 million Americans, or about 9% of the population, live without any form of health insurance. Many of these uninsured may delay getting tested for coronavirus, which many experts say will likely contribute to the virus becoming an epidemic. "Mrs. Sanders" brings to light that in the richest country on the planet, lack of medical care is a travesty, unethical and a real life horror.
"Mrs. Sanders" helps to make the case for Medicare for All, Bernie Sanders' signature platform which boldly presumes that health care is a right and not a privilege. With Zeigler's real life students participating in the production of the short film (including writing, cinematography, editing and sound design), she feels this is evidence of a new awakening where young people are increasingly using media as a tool to promote social justice.
ABOUT NOEMI ZEIGLER (producer, lead actor, supervising editor):
Noemi aka Madeline Minx is an award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker and performer and an adjunct professor, teaching film and media production at several colleges. She earned her MFA in Film Directing from the American Film Institute. She's currently developing several film and TV projects with Wendy Kram (producer, Mad Money). Her full bio is available on her website at https://madelineminx.com/about-me
Mrs. Sanders Full movie: https://youtu.be/Vcx8zBqGIJ8
Mrs. Sanders Trailer: https://youtu.be/Cu6QIktYllc
Website: https://madelineminx.com/mrs-sanders-movie
