Middle of Nowhere (2012)

the question of cinema's relationship to time is an old one in film and media studies, but it returns again and again, perhaps because the human relationship to time is complex, if finite. Past theorists such as Hugo Münsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Maya Deren, André Bazin, and Gilles Deleuze offered reflections on how cinema organizes, represents, or embodies time, and in recent years, this question has informed work on slowness in cinema (or slow cinema). Apart from more sophisticated definitions, these are films that simply feel slow—films by Tsai Ming-liang, Béla Tarr, and Chantal Akerman, for instance, are often cited—and many writers argue that this experience, in and of itself, produces something positive for the viewer. In 2017, summarizing the previous fifteen years of scholarship on slow cinema, Catherine Fowler noted, “Whatever their individual agendas, engagements with slow cinema traditions converge around the conviction that through diegetic variations in speed viewers who engage will start to see things differently (both intellectually and perceptually)” (242). Likewise, the words speed and acceleration, often set against slowness, have inspired their own scholarly engagement. Addressing these terms in a 2016 “In Focus” forum on “speed” for Cinema Journal (now Journal of Cinema and Media Studies), section editor Tina Kendall called for “thinking past the binaries of fast and slow to acknowledge the simultaneity and copresence of a wide range of speeds, velocities, and rhythms that confront us through our interactions with media culture” (118). This article aims to move beyond these binaries as well, not by examining “fast” or “slow” directly, nor by talking about time and cinema in a larger sense, but instead by introducing an adjacent, though distinct term to this dialogue, one that has seen extensive treatment in other fields but less so in film and media studies: waiting.Waiting is a word most people see as an experience with consequences ranging from the minor to the catastrophic, and it often carries negative connotations. The social sciences, particularly anthropology, have taken great interest in waiting. Barry Schwartz's 1975 Queueing and Waiting: Studies in the Social Organization of Access and Delay, for instance, examines waiting within organizations and social structures more generally. For Schwartz, waiting “limits productive uses of time and in so doing generates distinct social and personal costs” (5). Pierre Bourdieu's 2000 Pascalian Meditations, first published in France in 1997, reflects on waiting as a function of time and power: “Waiting is one of the privileged ways of experiencing the effect of power, and the link between time and power”; “[w]aiting implies submission” (228). Though not devoted exclusively to waiting, Bourdieu's argument that those who control economic and social power also control time anticipates some contemporary scholarship on waiting. At the same time, recent studies have begun to explore dimensions of waiting that provide individual benefits. Both perspectives appear in the 2020 collection Ethnographies of Waiting: Doubt, Hope and Uncertainty (Janeja and Bandak), which has a wide range of responses to waiting as a subject. Reviewing this and Liene Ozoliņa's 2018 Politics of Waiting, anthropologist Francisco Martínez notes that the texts “serve to push forward something akin to ‘waiting studies’” (115), a growing body of work largely based on the negative relationship between the power of institutions and the individual body on which the time of institutions registers. However, as Martínez makes clear, some texts make arguments close to those about slow cinema, in which waiting may, in some cases, be a positive experience.My desire in this article is to bring waiting studies into cinema and media studies, analyzing what waiting means in media culture and media texts. I understand that some readers may view my venturing into another discipline with skepticism, and I have no wish to represent myself as a scholar in that field. With that said, in beginning to think past the binaries Kendall identifies, my hope is that drawing on waiting studies will productively inform how scholars consider time in cinema. To do that, I want to return to a film about waiting, Ava DuVernay's 2012 film Middle of Nowhere. Waiting in DuVernay's film seems simple: one character awaits another's release from prison. They long for each other, and they initially present a very traditional, negative view of waiting. Yet the film renders waiting much more complexly than a focus on this negative affect alone, making it an excellent test case for what waiting studies might offer understandings of cinema, waiting, and time.For those who have not seen it, the film follows Ruby (Emayatzy Corinealdi), a woman who lives in Southern California and works as a nurse. Much of her emotional life is bound up with thoughts of her husband Derek (Omari Hardwick), who is serving time in prison for selling firearms illegally and who is coming up for parole after four years away from Ruby. Into this plot DuVernay introduces Brian (David Oyelowo), a bus driver on Ruby's route whom she meets by chance at the beach and with whom she eventually develops a romantic relationship after learning of Derek's infidelity while in prison.A question that drives much of the film is whether Ruby will return to Derek and forgive him or be with Brian in a new romantic relationship. But so much of the film, as a whole, hinges on waiting. Narratively, the characters are stuck in a kind of holding pattern: Derek is the most obvious person in this regard, given that he is serving time in prison, and the parole hearing, promised in the opening scene and delivered about halfway through the film, makes that sense of waiting even more felt, since there is a chance that it might end. In this case, Ruby's waiting would end too; although she is not incarcerated, her life has taken on a waiting quality of its own, as underscored by her mother's chiding her for working nights, a compromise Ruby has made so as to leave her days free to travel to see Derek, and for not pursuing her medical-school ambitions (not yet, at least). She is, in a sense, waiting to begin her life again. Brian, too, in his own way, awaits a decision from Ruby as to whether or not she might pursue a relationship with him. These are, one might say, negative forms of waiting—waiting that has been thrust on the characters and that they would not want. Certainly, in the case of Derek and Ruby, waiting is a symptom of institutional power over the time of these two individuals.Many people have spoken to the film's interest in waiting, including the filmmaker herself. When asked in a 2014 interview, “Why did you make Middle of Nowhere?” DuVernay answered, “It started from an interest in exploring the lives of partners of the incarcerated. It was an area that I have always been fascinated with, about women who wait. What we wait for. What we deem acceptable within a relationship” (qtd. in Martin 79). In scholarship, Christina N. Baker writes extensively on the film's portrayals of love, mass incarceration, and Black identity, especially of women (all of the principal characters are Black), and she investigates waiting directly, noting of Ruby, “Her life revolves around waiting and anticipation—she waits by the phone for her husband's daily phone calls and she anticipates seeing her husband as she takes the long bus trip to visit him every weekend” (113–14). Michael Boyce Gillespie also describes how Ruby “exists in a state of waiting for her husband's release, his collect calls, his parole hearing, and the ritual cycle of her bus visits to prison” (159). In addition, while Linda Badley's study of women's filmmaking and “neo-neorealism” does not use the term waiting, she homes in on Middle of Nowhere's “nuanced minimalism” and its representing “cinema [that] forces spectators to immerse themselves in the monotony, and by women in and to what is not simply on the article to this work by examining a within the film's of waiting, between what Baker describes and something more especially in the film's Waiting studies this in a larger sense, how writers might use it to think beyond the binaries of slowness and speed that Kendall calls on scholars to of has a that through waiting studies, often based in viewers might view the film as a about social a particularly in Black cinema studies, which has been of of In Cinema and the of Black Michael Boyce Gillespie an to Black cinema does not to a focus on how cinema or social and against that the function of this of cinema an or to the or provide in the sense of social it he film be as not Certainly, some to be many of the film, as as some of DuVernay's own would as as would at some of this own DuVernay's makes it for viewers to away as though the film be as or that have been a Black cinema studies, this article this in a productive way, to how and the end of the film of waiting as it also to a forward for its study mass and other very she makes clear, Middle of an and waiting, in personal and at the Ruby visits Derek in prison. I want to I will some of her and with a more through waiting studies, to inform my of the film's of with the at the prison, as Ruby its into the film's of waiting, not with the bus to the prison, and but also with Ruby's to and from of in her relationship with as the scene the of Ruby's and her with The the through of that of Ruby in the in against a the same while prison the a the women a Ruby her and a over her and an between Derek and Ruby that the viewers have been hearing, the two as Derek Ruby, want you to for for Ruby are She makes that she will wait for Derek years, with and that is her the film to four years this waiting at a bound up in the this Derek's for life in terms of for means that he does not want Ruby to her medical-school on a decision from Ruby's of view so that she see him. as a her to travel the are but no time for This is a holding waiting the film two to wait is to has no or Waiting, with for has much less than not waiting, with over reflects much larger with time and to be in the contemporary is to be in years about travel and that is or to be than studies of through through to to and is often as the more This in may have from and more of and a that time to be more productively in to be more this time as a waiting to be with this be the on time that there is an in which and be these in carries more than is than waiting. Waiting, does not the time This of time to the each person their own to or not to the that social time to into this very personal between Ruby and does not have to travel to see the and social dimensions of this of is made in one scene Ruby calls the prison to on Derek's as she Derek's institutional to a of and viewers see in the an of in her and the words Waiting in the film is bound up with a much and social about Black and mass that Baker and the film's focus on Ruby, Derek, and Brian how larger dimensions of waiting on individual To return to the those who in and who their with time have than those who do and the the time the the to those who do not their In this Derek's that his has his to a of To wait is to be to be that the opening scene of the film with Ruby's and Derek's Ruby with Derek are and their romantic are clear, their in to that waiting, although and to an The film this viewers see Ruby at the the Ruby with and is often This is particularly in the very scene at the Ruby's of Derek's infidelity at his parole Ruby seems to be the character who at the life in waiting is a the film which is in this Ruby is she has of Derek's to the she meets Brian, in a the of and of as to her which is to to as a but which is on another to be and to wait. themselves are also of who wait and after and for and of who wait for the to of speed and on by no means on this film devoted to viewers see Ruby's especially in an scene she her She to a and a from Derek, delivered from a The of the scene follows Ruby's again, she works a her is of with more she the and for as the To wait within the of is to that and Ruby to for to the of by the film a of to even if with in for Derek, as the film into of Ruby's and his life to his incarceration, with Ruby's to this as past to the the film Ruby into as Derek her in her close as she to waiting that the section will Yet this be nor its of as the Ruby, in the for her as her returns from thrust again into waiting in a much of the film, waiting is It and the personal and their economic and their and social But this of waiting in the film is another through the character of the film, the film Brian with most because he often drives Ruby, whether in the bus that she from work and that he drives or in his own they on This seems in with Brian has a life because he is in is not waiting, nor is he Yet the film this view with a more positive sense of waiting, as Brian and waits for Ruby, and she him. Waiting with Brian is, for Ruby, often this is not waiting, with the the word because the film a more in these the for some of the first between Brian and Ruby, about into the the social and in to Derek's more and an around Brian the scene at a this more sense of time, the film Ruby's sense of waiting, not again after Derek's parole and the of his Ruby Brian at the they set to after the parole hearing, viewers see Ruby at the in including a on her the film to in it is a to Ruby through that the scene is Ruby has the bus and taken in her but has taken a two more of and a of about Ruby's in the The holding on her and a more film might time this to a in Derek to the film's in this than up waiting as for Ruby, as she awaits seeing Brian, and for in the of and waiting is by no means a might also to something also an scene and Ruby and first The scene takes at and with Ruby at the and Brian the they to one another and that, the scene to a of about a and a a on Ruby's that eventually to a on Brian, and to Ruby as she into his her on the in an of her with Narratively, the scene the begun in the as Ruby her on the the work to slow the wait with these characters in a from as waiting if to Ruby's Waiting may even be the term might be to this of waiting. returns in a scene that Ruby the bus with two of Brian and Ruby, as Brian drives his the film to Brian to the of the after his has he with Ruby. Brian her to the and Ruby Middle of the waiting of a waiting that its as the in their their the same they will at the the film waiting cinema see Ruby and Brian in the a of the and the a as Brian that the film's have film in its is its own of waiting. than that, to the as to it at or means up own time to the sense of In the Ruby and Brian the film if they want to up and something to and they of the film and the They wait to the film, and in the is, another of waiting, given that they speed through the would they want forms of waiting, also this especially given the that Ruby and Brian are in is, with each waiting for waiting for waiting for the film to and waiting to the by a on the they to about the they have the film that one to to against waiting and against is to to people by waiting in of even more time, but on their own would be one to if the film But the film's between waiting and is much more than this would To understand this article to the film's to see how it with about waiting Ruby's own of Nowhere's with Ruby's visit to Derek in prison. to this viewers have seen a of Ruby and Derek often in of between is in a much to and as it is the of Derek's and the they waiting for each The up this prison Ruby Derek she will do another four years with and eventually in of the prison against At this the film into a by Ruby's and while and work they also provide two very time and waiting, for the as the first in Ruby hope and to release her from She that she and Derek are in between the and the in a a from past and and she reflects that around is within each she describes her and as in by of what by of what is, by of what they and what will Ruby these want to be She in the see in of other I and I while which to there are no she on a present focus as an to past has and the it we she her she her own but seems at with are a question I to I of the are no But This of to the more negative waiting that Ruby and Derek have for so much of the the film through would that waiting be through a focus on the one that is not between past and but instead in the film this Ruby the prison, the less clear, with of Ruby's at a her and Ruby's at a These may but are not or to Ruby's prison as the scene it more When Ruby see in of other I viewers see her with Brian, and initially the is Brian is another or she But a Ruby a that has or is this a is it something that Ruby return to Ruby's there is no Ruby, she is no waiting, but This even more in the Ruby and Derek are at the The scene a that in the film, but with a Ruby's In previous Ruby's was the as Ruby's is as it is the present of the But the scene be in the since Derek is in prison. does it it a after Derek's is it a it is a is or the Ruby to the bus and she no on the but to work on the she to she made a between Brian and is this her the prison, or much or again, in a In to the on the these something to away from waiting is not to immerse in the present but to and or not this is what Gillespie means he to Ruby as of that in the of the film's waiting be away from in film that are in the present people also at the film hope in Ruby's in her as the What be made of this which viewers a sense of the she a or or against she in or a the the complex, lives of those who wait. The film does not positive for negative it what Ruby and do within the waiting she It a question of To that question this article returns to waiting word waiting seems to very for Derek's and Ruby's waiting if not in the and personal lives of those who wait. has waiting extensively these in a social and than Derek's and on in and around called including the of the and the waiting area of the 2012 of the The Politics of Waiting in that the who wait by learning to be of the with drawing on the word or argument is that these to its instead who do not their who because they in that they have to be he they are but in their interactions with the their sense of is to They are as and with very they think and feel her are very is not in the film with this at many as in the film's opening of Ruby's into the prison. although Ruby's own from as she Derek's with another to her waiting and Derek's waiting with Waiting in Middle of often simply be Ruby has from this the a at a at forms of waiting, or do in this to the negative forms of waiting that Ruby will to this Ruby has some viewers to feel this even if they always see or it and even if the of the film would time to time, waiting studies has also seems Liene Ozoliņa's 2018 Politics of Waiting: and the of studies in they an at a time other such as did What was it about that made which of a range of to that often on in her the that so many of this of on as a of In other while these they to on in they of the to this She that in these with the and with a that was it This her to view their waiting with while not “Waiting as a of state control in contemporary but also as a for to be in the of the state (5). She to my with work on as a of a life that is even of great and It I and about waiting and about and about the and (5). This interest in waiting and waiting as a of a more of waiting that is to Middle of Nowhere's Ruby's life are in many ways in and her Brian, and other Ruby's may not be to larger given its the film's Ruby's would this way, to return to arguments and Black cinema studies, the film also calls on viewers to to to the film as a of Black life or to that, the film, viewers what Ruby's experience, or that of who have this of waiting, might perhaps one might that the film is a not a to this is not The film in this view of social and an that of the of seeing as a that be or a question that be the the so as to for its characters by viewers about Black experience the film but in Ruby's words at the that waiting studies make sense of the ways that Middle of with and forms of waiting and of Both and Ozoliņa's perspectives provide into how the film takes very the of Ruby at the same time, the ways in which she that to her larger institutional and over which she has no This may, be with a character such as Ruby than with in or Ozoliņa's again, Ruby's and so would one want to an that would as an for larger and economic forces on individual lives by that or of the people of holding those forces and the institutions that for the they than see this as in one might simply this as a and in a that DuVernay's as one positive and negative forms of waiting in the the waiting scholar an to the for her in drawing even begun the In that also notes how desire to and to to some a in the of But he for another as is an and very that to the from it is the to in and about their or their experience is the to see in these of the of This is what DuVernay's a set of that for viewers to engage with so they might more the ways in which waiting and those who wait might within much larger over which the have no while drawing to the structures that that this article has to this is also a question of to study this film's speed or slowness, one understand how the film waiting and the film It is may to and film and media studies may have something to offer waiting studies: while may to does one Ruby at film's end. Ruby and to her at the end again, there are no to these viewers may

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