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LOS ANGELES: In February, when few Americans were aware of a strangely named and distant phenomenon called coronavirus, two Chinese filmmakers donned hazmat suits and embedded themselves in overrun Wuhan hospitals.
There, they captured heartbreaking images of terrified citizens banging on hospital doors, doctors collapsing from exhaustion, and family members begging in vain to say goodbye to their infected loved ones.
Now, those images have been edited together by New York-based director Hao Wu (People’s Republic Of Desire).
Released at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday, 76 Days, named for the length of the central Chinese city shutdown, is the first major documentary from the original epicenter of the disease to hit theaters.
Shot in a claustrophobic, cinema verite style, with no voiceover or direct-on-camera interviews, the film draws on the intimacy of images of doctors and patients dealing with a terrifying new reality.
Wu first made contact with the two filmmakers, one of whom is anonymous for his own safety, after witnessing China’s early shutdown firsthand during a family visit for the Chinese New Year.
The images they sent him revealed how, in the chaos of the first weeks of the disease, they were able to gain remarkable access, but at considerable personal risk and suffering.
“It was a horrible, horrible shooting experience for them,” Wu told AFP. “They were passing out, it was really hot. A few times [filmmaker Weixi Chen] I wanted to vomit inside [his] glasses, but he couldn’t because once you vomit, once you take off your PPE, you have to go out, you can’t go back. “
“It was like shooting in a war zone,” he added.
Wu also had a personal motivation to continue the project.
His grandfather died of cancer shortly after the outbreak, unable to find a hospital bed as resources were running low under the weight of Covid-19.
“At first I was angry at the Chinese government, I really wanted to know who is to blame, what caused this,” Wu said.
But once the pandemic spread, with exponentially greater tragedy, to other countries like the United States, the desire to blame was replaced by the desire to document how “as humans live this, how can we share this experience.” .
“SCAR”
Ironically, despite Beijing’s strict controls on information, access was somewhat easier in China. Privacy concerns and litigation proved to be a much greater barrier to filming in New York hospitals, Wu discovered.
Wuhan hospitals desperately lacking in personal protective equipment initially welcomed the coverage that could boost donations and volunteers, he added.
The film avoids politics and guilt to focus on personal stories of tragedy and courage, hope and despair, which were repeated around the world after emerging in China.
Doctors tenderly hold the hands of patients away from their families, and viewers can only distinguish them by the colorful squiggles they scrawl on the hazmat suits from head to toe.
But it is unclear if the film will ever be seen in China, where news about the pandemic has been tightly controlled from day one, prompting many in the West, including US President Donald Trump, to accuse him. Beijing of a great cover-up.
“I would love to show it in China, because I feel like for the whole country with COVID, it has been a scar on the nation’s psyche,” said Wu, who hopes he can help his ancestral home mourn their losses.
“Obviously, right now, most Chinese are proud that the country has been able to control it. But it is a trauma.”
