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
“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, from premiere at Maine International Film Festival
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 wantedto bring my dance and performance lens to explore this periodof spiritual awakening. I was drawn to the physicality ofprophetic style that marked this moment of religious revival. Wesought to bring a queer sensibility to all aspects of this (unlikely)production. With many parts of the historical record missing, weattempt to be in conversation with history while allowing queerimagination to ‘fill in the cracks.’...”