Coronavirus: The Beijing Quarantine Diaries

Shanghai Quarantopia

2023

How has the coronavirus epidemic transformed everyday life in Shanghai? The world seems to have gone black and white. New routines are replaced by often harrowing and bleak intertwining stories, public announcements or cries for help. The director observes these from the shelter of her home, but even this, as a result of isolation, no longer evokes a sense of safe haven.

The Letter League

A short documentary that tells the story of queer artist Heather Spooner and the adult pen pal program she created during the pandemic, featuring the poignant and humorous stories of connection and humanity that came from it.

Kate Garraway: Finding Derek

2021 · ★ 7

Journalist and presenter Kate Garraway allowed cameras to document her story as her husband battles Covid and her family adjust to a new way of life.

Inside Red China

1958 · ★ 8

October 1st, 1957. Dusk descends on Tiananmen Square, Peking. Fireworks crackle light across the night sky, above a city alive with National Day festivities and celebrations. Two intrepid New Zealand film-makers - Rudall and Ramai Te Miha Hayward - are there, documenting the life and times of communist China. The distinction of being the first English speaking foreigners to film unfettered in communist China was significant. The invitation to visit China was facilitated through the New Zealand China Friendship Society. They filmed in Canton, Shanghai, Peking (Beijing) and Wuhan. It was a small window of opportunity for Westerners to gaze on a country that was largely a mystery to the outside world since 1949. The unfortunate irony was that two of the documentaries; “Wonders of China”, and “Inside Red China”, were considered to be communist propaganda, and were not distributed outside of New Zealand.

And the Band Played On

1993 · ★ 6.4

The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.

Living in Fear

Filmed and edited entirely in isolation, Living in Fear is an educational and inspiring documentary directed by myself, Stephanie Castelete-Tyrrell, a disabled filmmaker as I capture the fears and struggles disabled people faced before the government implemented the lockdown on the 23rd March 2020. Thousands of people with disabilities were left in the dark and had to make the call weeks before to lockdown as it was inevitable that we would die if we caught the virus. Food was impossible to access because we couldn't go out or get delivery slots, and even if we did panic buyers made it impossible to get the items we desperately needed. We were truly isolated, unable to have family and friends visit. Having carers coming in and out of the house was risky and many disabled people felt that having basic care was putting their lives at risk.

Twenty

2023

Set in a speakeasy in Atlanta, “Twenty” is a feature documentary about fifteen young people making it through 2020. The film is an observational time capsule that lays bare the raw reflections of a group of people surviving a year that will be seared into our generational memory.

The Big Reset

2022 · ★ 6

No synopsis available.

144

2021 · ★ 7.3

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 WNBA season pivoted into a bubble site in Bradenton, Florida – where 144 players across 12 teams convened to face the rigors of an unrelenting schedule and finish their battle for a championship; all while just as dedicated to amplify social activism in response to the injustices that gripped that same summer. A documentary from ESPN Films.

Essential Exhibition

2023

An independent documentary about the unprecedented struggles of movie theaters and the film industry as a whole during the COVID-19 pandemic

Igor Levit: No Fear

2022 · ★ 6.7

Follows the artist over two years as he explores his „life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist.

Covidwood

2021 · ★ 9

A French documentary on how Covid-19 affected Hollywood and the cinema industry in the United States.