The Long Winter

By Britney Phan

A short film about the daily lives of high school students following the Omicron outbreak.

Process

When I first started working on my short documentary, I began by collecting photos and footage of what I saw around me. It was easy to take a picture of an empty classroom, because empty rooms became an increasingly familiar sight as cases started rising and the outbreak worsened. By the end of the week, I had so many photos that they were taking up too much storage, so I began exporting them as clips for what would be the first of many versions of my documentary. My idea was simple: I’d try my best to accurately portray my experience going to school during the Omicron outbreak, which came about as a result of a pair session with my mentor, Lindsay, as our discussions of the pandemic turned from hopeful to scared to worried again. I was interested in capturing that moment and framing it in time, because even now, a few months later, I find myself thinking about it once more, just as COVID cases rise again.