Lockdown: A Documentary About Being Socially Isolated

Same Difference has been asked to publicise the below by an old friend of the site. You can contact her here if you wish to participate.

My name is Sapna Ramnani and I am a documentary maker. While in lockdown during the coronavirus epidemic, I will be making a documentary to explore the personal stories of people from all over the world who are now in social isolation.

Having completed a PhD in January of this year, I am both a scholar and an independent documentary film-maker with Cerebral Palsy that affects my motor functions including my speech.

I would like to hear from you if you are willing to share your personal stories of what social isolation means for you, your family and friends. What does it mean for you when you are suddenly not able to go about your daily business and being unable to see your family, friends and the rest of society? How are you coping with daily life and not being able to do the things you want to? How has social isolation impacted on your mental and physical well-being?

Your stories will be included in a documentary which I will be making over the next few weeks, if you are interested in participating, then please read on.

Governments in almost every country are responding to the outbreak of highly contagious coronavirus by instructing people to stay at home and not to meet up in person with friends, family and work colleagues. This limits transmission so health services do not become overwhelmed and also prevents many deaths.

It is also, for most, a new way of living our lives with severe restrictions on what we can do. What have you not being able to do since the lockdown that you did previously? Are there things you have been able to do now as a result of the lockdown? How does this way of living impact on your physical and mental well-being? What, if anything, have we learnt about ourselves and is our outlook on the world any different? The documentary will explore your perspective on questions like these by giving you an opportunity to explain lockdown from your perspective. 

This documentary will be a combination of personal home movies and interviews that I will conduct online where I will investigate the thoughts, opinions and lifestyle adjustments individuals have had to make to adapt to social isolation.

People from all over the world are welcome to contribute their stories and opinions, which will provide a global yet personal perspective.

Personally, being unable to see my friends has been hard to adapt to.

I will conduct a series of conversational interviews where people will be encouraged to talk about life under lockdown. This, combined with any home movies will be edited into a documentary. For those interviewees who wish to be included but want their identities to be hidden, I will use a voice over to disguise their voices and protect their anonymity.

Whatever your perspective and whatever your personal story of how you have been coping with the lockdown, I would like to hear from you.