Ready for Their Close-Up

As a video team waits at the entrance of The Floating Hospital main clinic in Long Island City, a white Good Health Shuttle van pulls up. “Is it them?” asks a man holding a fuzzy boom microphone. They form a perimeter around the van door as a mother and son emerge and a staff member welcomes them. The small crew—director/camera man, sound technician and producer—capture their entrance, then follow them inside.

This, a glimpse into the process of making “Hope,” this year’s summer gala video, is one of many moments of “B-roll”—set up shots and background footage—that provide context for the series of quotes that will become the final edit. Every year, we interview various constituencies about The Floating Hospital and what it means to them.

What you see as an end product at the gala, our website or on our YouTube channel is a tiny fraction of what has been captured, to keep the length to a tight five minutes. The video is an annual highlight and centerpiece of the benefit, reminding our guests and sponsors why and how we do what we do everyday. In it, patients discuss how our resources have improved their lives and key staff members describe our services such as primary, dental and behavioral healthcare, as well as life skills, social services, health education, transportation, nutritional guidance, clothing, relief supplies and more.

For the past few years, The Floating Hospital has engaged Scott Elliott and Julia Elliott, the brother-and-sister team behind 590Films, to make these videos. Scott is the creative director and the director, cinematographer and editor of the films. Julia is the producer and writer as well as the interviewer, whose questions drive the narrative. Barbara LaPlaca, our vice president of communications and marketing, serves as the executive producer for our videos.

Judging by their quick work setting up and going for shots around our main clinic on May 16, they have absorbed much from their previous projects documenting us and our patients. Having spent the day before in most of the subjects’ apartments, Julia understood their backgrounds and knew what she wanted to ask and see to illustrate our assistance in their own hard work to improve their lives. The team shares credits on award-winning documentaries and promise on their website to “bring that sensibility to every single project we do… Out in the field, we try to make every participant feel comfortable in sharing their story.”

‘And, action!’

“Ashley, just to start, can you say and spell your first and last name?” Julia asks Ashley, one of this year’s subjects. She, like the other participants, are not actors. They’re real people, typically on camera for the first time. “Ashley, real quick. Remember to look just at Julia,” Scott reminds her. “Pretend the camera's not here.”

The interview begins, punctuated by pauses necessitated by a very busy streetscape just below the room’s window. After a few breaks to wait for the traffic noises to abate, Ashley tells her story. From the time she fled domestic violence and arrived back in the city with her two children in 2018, she found support at The Floating Hospital. We provided the blood work and vaccinations they needed to stay in their shelter, and then helped throughout her journey to find a career and permanent housing. “The Floating Hospital really helped me secure the things that I needed to go forward and to live my life here in the city,” she said.

“It's not just healthcare services it’s so much more… When I first came back to New York City, I really didn't have much of anything. I literally had to leave with one bag … and I remember I had this book bag that I got from The Floating Hospital, and that book bag carried me through a lot,” she recalled, tearing up. “I know it probably seems foolish, because it’s a book bag, but I didn’t have anything.” And her relationship with the hospital continues. “The Floating Hospital is a part of my entire family.”

Ashley is not only speaking of her children, but of her mother Lawanda and brother Bryce, the ones captured entering the clinic via our Good Health Shuttle transportation system, which picked them up in the Bronx. They too are subjects of the video and were interviewed in their apartment as well as in the clinic. Bryce, who has lost 60 pounds with the help of doctors and nutritionists at The Floating Hospital, said losing the weight “made me feel proud, feel strong, because I did that. To have the doctors there to help and support you added a sense of encouragement to it.” Lawanda remembers using the hospital’s services at the time when it was actually floating, when she was a child with her mother. She still comes for her medical services today.

‘A magical place’

Delexis, whose son has Down’s Syndrome, credits The Floating Hospital’s doctors with his ability to speak and her own weight loss of 265 pounds. Living in the city’s shelter system when she first starting coming to us in 2012, she now has permanent housing in Astoria. While living in a shelter, she used our Good Health Shuttle to get to the clinic and fondly recalled her driver, Paul Fuller. The video team added an interview with Paul, who still drives for us, to their list. “It’s very inspiring to help, to make sure they come and they are happy… The homeless, they can rely on us,” he said to the camera and in the final cut.

Her two daughters, Malaisha and Dairsha, and niece Rihanna go to Camp Rise Up and she appreciates what they learn there.“Sex was a very hard subject for me to talk about with my kids… so Camp Rise Up did that for me. They love it, especially the baby activity,” where they have to walk around with the balloons to simulate what it would be like to care for an infant. “They tried to call me about that situation,” she said with a laugh. She could “see the change in their attitudes when they came back from camp… They actually got to interact with more people, different cultures. They have more respect, more manners. So yes, Camp Rise Up is a lifesaver.”

And that’s not just her take. Rihanna said “you not only learn to protect yourself, but protect others and respect others.” Dairsha found it made her more confident. “I'm very shy and being more open to the world has increased my ability to chat and be more open,” she said. “That one week makes you want to go back every year… to the point where you want to live there,” said Malaisha.

Ashley said, “thank you for providing all of the things that you provide here, all of the resources, all of the healthcare, everything, because it really is services like this that people need in order to live a better life.”