Just Another Day

During the 3 months of citywide lockdown, our lives were as if caught in the extreme conditions of wartime. People were banned from going out, and those who tested positive were taken into mobile cabin hospitals for collective quarantine. The once bustling Shanghai streets were empty like the Apocalypse. Every recorded image and footage has been censored and hunted down like in the real world. During day-to-day PCR test and solitude, the obvious question is, how to present the whole look of this special time under such speech control and “Citywide Static Management”?

After I started collecting these materials, the huge amount of videos I received have given me so much energy and passion for creation during the pandemic. Such as depression patients stuck in help center，girl broke out of lockdown zone to deliver supplies to friends, tourists stranded in the airport, musicians teaching hang drum in mobile cabin hospitals… As a documentary maker, it’s common sense that sometimes you have to keep distance from your subjects and make sure their decisions were from their true heart. However in this film, for so many times we had to help our subjects find their shelter/food first. This process of collecting materials has involved me in everyone's life instead. It also gave me a better understanding of how documentaries are made.

Three month after the lockdown, Shanghai still maintains the policy that PCR test must be done every three days. Our film has also been removed from online platforms. How far is it from anger to numbness? How to reconcile with yourself in the midst of a stagnant status quo?In this extraordinary historical moment, people have long been stuck in between confusion, restlessness and madness. I hope this short film can be a depiction of the epidemic era and the life attitudes in Shanghai. I also hope that every recorded moment will be cherished.