Experiencing Interruptions?

My 2020

The first year of the pandemic was the most unusual, shared experience in recent memory, and in “My 2020”, a documentary filmmaker chronicles that strange year in real time.

  • Peter Odabashian
    Director
    Somewhere To Be, Old Friends, Getting Back To Abnormal, and more
  • Peter Odabashian
    Producer
    Somewhere To Be, Old Friends, Getting Back To Abnormal, and more
  • Esther Cohen
    Producer
    Somewhere To Be
  • Peter Odabashian
    Camera
    Somewhere To Be, Old Friends
  • Peter Odabashian
    Editing
    more than 23 documentaries
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 25 minutes 45 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 7, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Peter Odabashian

Peter Odabashian has worked in film for over 45 years. He was a sound editor on 18 feature films from “Reds” to “Carlito’s Way” and he's edited more than 23 documentaries. In 1984, he won a Golden Reel Award for best feature sound editing for the film “Places In The Heart”. In 1987, he cut his first feature-length documentary, “The Beat Generation”, an official selection of the Berlin Film Festival. From 1988 to 1992 he edited five films for producer Irv Drasnin that were broadcast on Frontline, Nova, and American Experience on PBS. He worked with Andy Kolker and Louis Alvarez for the first time in 1996 on the Peabody and Columbia-DuPont winning documentary, “Vote for Me”, and won a national editing Emmy for his efforts. In 1997, he cut “America In The 40’s”, the first non-fiction musical documentary, for Tom Spain and in 1998 he returned to The Center for New American Media to work on four more documentaries, “Moms”, “People Like Us”, “Sex: Female”, and “Small Ball”.
Peter became a producer/director in 2004 and went on to share credits with Andy and Louis on “The Anti-Americans” and “You Got To Swing”. In 2013 he completed “Getting Back To Abnormal” with them and Paul Stekler, and that film became an official selection of SXSW and was featured on the PBS series, POV.
“Old Friends” was Peter’s first solo effort after 40 years of collaborative filmmaking, and it had a joyous premiere at DOC NYC in 2015. He followed that with “Somewhere To Be” which also opened at DOC NYC and went on to play at festivals and special screenings all over the country. His new film, “My 2020”, is a personal chronicle of what turned out to be a difficult, surprising, and memorable year.

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Director Statement

I was born on October 10th and I decided in early January, 2020 that I would document the year, knowing as little as any of us did about what would unfold. I thought of it as a curious hook, 10/10 in 2020, but by the end of March, the pandemic pushed me to make a larger and, at the same time, a smaller film. My wife, my family, and the living room couch dominated daily life, and that’s where I pointed my camera. Covid-19, living in a bubble, election anxiety, and true love became the story lines. To reference an old British notion, “My 2020” is a kitchen sink, a movie genre where the story is told by looking at ordinary domestic situations, and in my film that includes a scene with myself, a coffee maker, and an actual kitchen sink. I have always been fascinated with the everyday, and I hope “My 2020” resonates with some of the feelings you may have experienced in your 2020.