WINNER 2020 JURY AWARD – BEST FEATURE
MIDNIGHT FAMILY
Luke Lorentzen
2020, United States and Mexico, 90 mins,
Filmmaker Luke Lorentzen accepts the SDFF 2020 Jury Award for Best Feature for Midnight Family. Midnight Family is set in Mexico City, the government operates fewer than 45 emergency ambulances for a population of 9 million. This has spawned an underground industry of for-profit ambulances often run by people with little or no training or certification. An exception in this ethically fraught, cutthroat industry, the Ochoa family struggles to keep their financial needs from jeopardizing the people in their care. When a crackdown by corrupt police pushes the family into greater hardship, they face increasing moral dilemmas even as they continue providing essential emergency medical services.