COVID POV By Abbey LeVine Swirl Studios

COVID POVBy Abbey LeVineSwirl StudiosPlease Take 5 minutes to watch the Proof-Of-Concept Video for the film: COVID POV Film Proof of ConceptAuthor: Swirl Studioshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf2WKnuMeB4Meet some of our stories:Jabari Morgan:Jabari has been laid off from his job and is waiting for unemployment. He has low to zero income and isexperiencing food insecurity. He rations cans of tuna for his meals because he can’t afford anything else. He haslost weight from starving in between meals (he is trying to stretch food supply) and is suffering from extremedepression and isolation. His story is raw, authentic, and beautiful. Jabari’s story exhibits the true insecurity,struggle, and isolation of what a percentage of our world is going through during this pandemic. Chris ReeceChris is a nurse in West Virginia and when this pandemic hit, he instantly volunteered to risk his own life on thefront lines in NYC as a traveling nurse. He packed his bags, left his wife behind, and arrived in NYC right beforethe peak happened in March. He worked a total of 40, twelve-hour days with just three days off. He describesthe current state of this pandemic like a war zone, nothing he has ever seen before. He recently returned back tohis family in West Virginia and is adjusting to a “normal” life again.The Vinci FamilyDorian and Paul Vinci have 2 kids and live in Staten Island, NY. Paul is an MTA bus driver in NYC and is consideredan essential worker during this pandemic. Dorian has become a teacher to her two kids due to the stay-at-homepolicy all while she balances working from home, being a wife, mom, and cook. Dorian is mentally, physically, andemotionally struggling on every level and is extremely scared about Paul catching the virus.Susan SoltesSusan and her husband own and operate Bow Hill Blueberries, a farm in idyllic rural Washington that has beendeemed an essential business in the food/ag category. The blueberry farm storefront is closed, but they have awalkup window and continue making deliveries and sales throughout the statewide shutdown. This pandemic hastotally altered her daily life; her business is struggling and she is fighting emotionally and mentally through thispandemic as well.Keesha Clark37 weeks pregnant at the beginning of this pandemic, Keesha, a first-time mom, was faced with a whole newlook at what it means to be pregnant during a pandemic. Her life changed overnight. She had to spend her lastfew weeks going to doctor's appointments by herself without her partner, her mom couldn’t fly to share thisintimate time with her as and she had to adjust her birth plan just in case she had to deliver by herself. Fastforward to her birthday, she ended up having an emergency c-section and is traumatized for life by the wayshe was treated due to COVID-19. Shivkumar BhadolaShiv Bhadola is a first-year resident physician based in Boston, MA. After years of medical school, he didn'texpect one of his first assignments to be working on the COVID unit team. Excited to be part of a historicalmoment, Shiv jumped at the opportunity. After serving on 3 different COVID response teams, he contractedCOVID-19 himself and went into isolation for 12 days. Completely traumatized, this entire experience as adoctor working on the front lines and as a COVID positive patient has given him nightmares, potentially PTSD,and made him question whether he still wants to be a doctor.Yvette PazYvette, a single mom and army vet who lives in Southern California was the FIRST to test positive for COVID - 19in March in Long Beach. She was hospitalized, given the trial medication, Hydroxychloroquine, and wasextremely sick. Her story went viral across social media and since has received a ton of attention, good and bad.She is still mentally, physically, emotionally recovering.Gary Jourdain, Jr. Gary Jourdain, Jr. is part of the Red Lake band of the Chippewa and his family have lived on the Red Lake IndianReservation for generations. The reservation is on lockdown and Gary is protective of the land he grew up on,his family, and the 6,000 residents in his community. The tribe depends on casino revenue to stay afloat, butafter seeing other tribes struggle to fight the virus, the recent loss of a close friend to COVID-19, and the veryfirst case of COVID-19 arriving on the reservation recently, Gary is scared that reopening too soon will cost morelives.Laura SebastianLaura lives in Madrid with her husband and two daughters. She has been unemployed for the last year and ahalf, and she was looking forward to starting a new job in April. But the pandemic put everything on hold. Sheis trying to make the best of the quarantine with her daughters... but is struggling on all fronts.The Premise:Around March 13th....The world paused and an unprecedented global reset started. Since then, humanity has come together to survive anhistoric pandemic, which some are calling "the great equalizer." Isolation ruptured communities and severed connections.Our points of view became myopic.COVID POV explores the day-to-day experiences of families and individuals struggling and succeeding through thepressures of the COVID - 19 pandemic. Told through raw, self-shot experiences over 60 days, contributors from all overthe world offer their insights, emotions, and opinions through these altered times. We face what happens when peopleare forced to be stripped down to the most basic needs, like food and safety, and how race, gender, and class impact ourallegedly shared experience.When the dust settles, have we gained a new sense of connection, or has isolation actually made us more divided than ever?The Purpose:COVID POV is shot on individual’s phones and told with their voice. We are digging deep into thousands of minutes of raw, unique footage sent to us by our worldwide contributors over 60 days in quarantine. We have chosen 20 main stories that tell the REAL STRUGGLES and the HOPE of this pandemic.COVID POV captures what it’s like to live this historical pandemic through the eyes of all races, genders, the rich, the poor, business owners, farmers, moms, dads, front line workers. Each POINT OF VIEW has an emotionally raw, authentic, sense that really makes you value the human race and how unpredictable life can be. It is our responsibility to leave stories of the pandemic behind for all future generations. We started filming on March 15, 2020.It is possible that this film could have sequels from post-quarantine and if we should get re-quarantined.The Stats:24 Female Filmmakers participated in this riveting film. 12 of them are mothers, 4 are solo mommas and 6 are immune-compromised. 71 film contributors REPRESENTING:•9 US States•10 CountriesOutreach and donations:The project is being produced entirely virtually with no physical meetings of teams taking place during this time and all film contributors submit a daily video diary via their smartphones.The project has very lofty production goals! The crew has set up a GoFundMe page @ https://www.gofundme.com/f/covidpov-film to meet these goals!Connect with the film on Instagram / Facebook:for video and more info. go to http://goodnewsplanet.com/covid-pov-by-abbey-levine-swirl-studios/