Generation Covid - The Documentary Film
Here's a sneak peek at the feature length documentary film I've been working on.
For the last year and a half I’ve been working on a documentary film called Generation Covid with my directing partner Andrew James.
We interviewed and followed the lives of children across the country. We went to California, New York, Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut and Florida to speak with families impacted by school closures and other onerous restrictions to the lives of kids.
Long after adults resumed their lives — returned to restaurants, bars, clubs and packed stadiums — children remained at home in “virtual school.” Not only did they go without the structure, community and safety net of adult oversight that in person education provides, they were forced to go without interactive play, playgrounds, graduations, sports, proms and any and all social activity.
It is now undeniably clear: children have paid the heaviest price from lockdowns — especially the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
Our kids are not alright.
As Jim Kuczo — one of the parents featured in the film — says: You cannot treat kids like prisoners and expect them to be okay. He knows. He paid the heaviest price.
The learning loss, devastating mental health impacts, chronically high absenteeism rates and uncertain futures many now face are all the result of the unfair burden placed upon children, who were always least at risk from covid, but forced to sacrifice the most.
I’m sharing a short concept piece — a buzz reel, if you will — for the film. Please listen to these kids. If you supported closures or if you didn’t . . . listen to these children. Hear what they went through. What their families went through and are still fighting to get back from. And ask yourself, did you do enough? Did you stand up when it mattered? And what can we do now, collectively, to ensure this never happens again?
We have completed filming and are now in post production — editing, graphics, music, archival footage that sets the stage . . . it all costs money. We’ve raised enough money from private funders to complete production. But we need more to complete the film. Help us out if you can. If you can’t, share the piece. Lend your support. Get the word out.
Here’s the buzz reel on YouTube.
And here’s the Give Send Go if you’re so inclined. $5, $10 . . . whatever you can spare.
Thank you.
My thoughts turn to the lower income single mother who has to work two jobs to make ends meet. Meanwhile, her kid(s) are home alone, probably not engaged in on line school. Oh, and, by the way, the kids had virtually no chance of getting dangerously sick from Covid. So, in the end, this was mostly driven by the selfish interests of Weingarten and her union leaders (not the teachers, for the most part). She, Fauci, Collins, and Birks should be put in the public stockade. I honestly don’t blame Trump. I don’t know what he was supposed to do other than to trust the career “experts”. Imagine if he’d overruled them, and thus was actually the threat to all that it could have been.
Thank you for doing what teacher’s unions should have done: amplify k-12 children’s voices. Their mental and social health. I signed the Balfour Declaration when rational policy discussion seemed to be possible. Boy was I wrong. Good luck finishing it. I can’t wait to see the final film.