Those Who Wait is a poetic retelling of the Millerite doomsday movement that swept across America in the 1840s.
The film follows the town of Portland, Maine as its residents navigate waves of apocalyptic prophecy and disappointment. Mixing the genres of historic re-enactment with fantastic parable, this queer gaze into the colonial past explores the powers and perils of "believing it's over."
“THOSE WHO WAIT, directed by Chani Bockwinkel and Ty Burdenski, is an ethereal and quite entrancing look at the Millerite movement... [shot] with loving period detail, Bockwinkel and Burdenski’s striking film
probes the inherent dissonance in believing in a prophecy and believing
that the world is about to end.”
-Chris Gray, from special exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art
-Chris Gray, from special exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art
“...for filmmakers Chani Bockwinkel and Ty Burdenski, the Seventh-day Adventist creation story was fertile ground for thinking through some of the pressing questions of our time: What do you do when you’re plagued with a desperate dissatisfaction with the world? How do you live when it seems the only path forward is utter and totalizing change?”
-Juliana Reyes, The Philadelphia Inquirer
-Juliana Reyes, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“THOSE WHO WAIT is a striking anomaly in the current cinematic world: a visionary film that looks back in order to look forward; a film based on an astonishing history that guards that history with a modest intensity...”
-Ken Eisen, Maine International Film Festival
“...a bold and fascinating new film from co-directors Chani Bockwinkel and Ty Burdenski, isn’t shy about drawing parallels to today... That vision extends to the film’s queer subtext, a thematic element the directors tie to the Millerites’ outsider status in their day.”
-Dennis Perkins, Portland Press Herald
director’s notes
Ty Burdenski:
“I was raised amidst the Adventist community and even briefly attended a Seventh Day Adventist school where I first learned the story of the Millerites and the procession of prophets that we built the film around. It was taught to me as the origin story of the SDA Church. After years of thinking about the spiritual aspects of “abolitionist politics,” I had the idea to return to this mythology to learn more about the sincere and absurd attempts to ‘break the world’ from those who came before us.”
Chani Bockwinkel:
“When Ty approached me about the project I was reading Donna Haraway and thinking about “staying with the trouble” inside of and alongside apocalyptic narratives. So I was immediately interested in this doomsday story as an allegory. In particular, I wanted to bring my dance and performance lens to explore this period of spiritual awakening. I was drawn to the physicality of prophetic style that marked this moment of religious revival. We sought to bring a queer sensibility to all aspects of this (unlikely)production. With many parts of the historical record missing, we attempt to be in conversation with history while allowing queer imagination to ‘fill in the cracks.’...”