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It’s been 2 months, 3 weeks and 6 days since the lockdown was announced and most of us are continuing the self-quarantine in a Coronavirus-ridden world. Human beings are the most resilient species on this planet and have started adapting to the requirements of this so-called New World. Staying indoors is a privilege and while we are grateful, the feeling of being locked down can get to us.
We’ve all been navigating the quarantine with numerous stories and emotions that, for some of these creators and filmmakers, have proved to be a subject worth exploring and documenting. It doesn’t matter what day of the quarantine we’ve reached, the similarities and differences in our emotions make this a unifying experience. If anything, these videos and short films reflect how each one of us feels about living indoors and defining our “new normal”.
I. The Quarantine Edit By Ishani Chakrabarti and Soham Dey
Soham and Ishani are colleagues- turned friends- turned team.
For the most part, they wanted to highlight the importance of detaching worth from the word ‘productivity’ during the pandemic. The definition of this word varies from person to person and that in itself is comforting to many people.
The idea behind the video
“We share ideas and concepts at odd hours for no reason sometimes which probably gives us a false sense of productivity. And that’s what clicked with us. What is productivity? Why do we need to be productive ALL the time? It’s a global crisis, not a vacation where you do your homework, chill and pick up new skills. It doesn’t work like that. It’s particularly difficult for people with mental health issues. I have been speaking about mental health for a while trying to de-stigmatize and spread awareness of the subject in hopes of starting a dialogue about it. And I knew exactly where I wanted to go with this Quarantine Journal. We wanted the viewers to take these two minutes and re-evaluate our idea of productivity,” says Ishani.
“It’s okay to not come back to your To-Do-List this evening.
It’s okay to not practice the skill you wanted to master at least for a while.
It’s okay to leave the ‘Taurus’ bookmark on page 47 and never come back to it.
It’s okay if you’ve spent an entire day on the internet or streaming platforms.
It’s okay if you’ve finished all your lockdown snacks. Get some more while you can.
It’s okay if you’ve stared at the blank wall for too long.
Productivity looks different for everyone. Taking care of yourself is productive too, and I bet nobody told you that.”
Follow Ishani on Instagram for more.
Follow Soham On Instagram for more.
II. Quarantine Journal by Karan Kapoor
Karan Kapoor wanted to create a visual journal of the state of mind of his friends from around the world and how they see the possibility of detachment during the lockdown.
“This is a short film about Rebecca who lives in Cardiff, UK and how she is investing her energy in the quarantine. The thought was to essentially guide her and give her a lot of questions to reply and choose explicit sort of shots to be shot as well and every one of his was done over texts and voice notes. This is the part one of the series I am shooting with my friends far and wide to draw out their anecdotes about how are they investing their energy in isolation.”
He says, “While editing the video, I understood how everything is still but then as a whole, we are associated with one another through words and emotions. Words offer a pathway to approach visuals and visa versa.
Everybody, everywhere in the world is feeling something similar yet unique, which makes this time that much more crucial for us to associate with ourselves and those in need.”
III. Day Infinity Of Quarantine By Anya Ghai
Anya’s movie is a video montage of little snippets from her time in the quarantine. Her honest depiction of life at home during the quarantine makes this video so much more relatable.
She says, “Being homebound, while the abandoned landscape of my city teases from the outside, has made me look for answers to a question, “What to do when you’re behind closed doors?” Seeing the same objects over and over again, my life became a loop, an infinite vertigo. The film is a visual letter to mundane activities in my house that kept me going. Now that the world’s largest lockdown has almost come to an end, I think capturing what my daily routine looks like, will become part of my norm moving forward as it has become more of a contemplative, meditative act.”
As a filmmaker and photographer, she cannot afford to step out and shoot outdoors anymore during the ongoing pandemic. The only alternative to this is to shoot indoors which can be spatially limiting, less-exasperating and creatively challenging.
Follow her work on Instagram for more.
IV. SHE-WOLF By Anuj Choudhry
Actor, model, and filmmaker Anuj Choudhry’s ‘SHE-WOLF’ is a story about a girl who discovers that her beloved dog, Shifu, is actually a Hybrid Indian Grey Wolf from the grasslands of Pune, Maharashtra, amid the lockdown. With less than 3,000 wolves remaining in India, this story is about their journey from New Delhi to the Himalayas; the birthplace of this species, traced back to a thousand years. This is a story of survival of a less charismatic and highly endangered species.
The movie was made in April during the lockdown which makes this pilot all the more interesting.
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