An anthology of four views on the intersection of race and the global COVID19 pandemic. Each Philadelphian reveals their personal stories of how they moved from fear, sadness or rage in the era of the pandemic and the George Floyd protests, to a place of service and mutual aid in their communities in dealing with the trauma of COVID-19. The short films are produced by independent filmmakers who are members of SIFTMedia 215 Collective. Executive Producer: Nadine Patterson. Editor: Stephen Schaffer. Sound Design: Mike Moore. Music: Ursula Rucker, Tim Motzer, Lenny Seidman.

PHOENIX RISING
Producer/Director/Editor: Lois M. Moses
This film tells the story of a Yogini Nya Patrinos who is incited during the confluence of the pandemic, the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd demonstrations, such that she goes out to march, befriends a group of African American teenage girls, and reflects that she has been playing life too small. Through that experience, she turns her practice of yoga into her activism, following a long tradition of yogini’s who fought in and for revolution.

Producer/Director: Melissa Beatriz
Animator : Gabrielle Patterson
Voiceover: Tatiana Bacchus and Melissa Beatriz
Editor: Tatiana Bacchus
A reflection on how Philly artists/cultural workers have been impacted by the pandemic, and how they are envisioning a new future that includes cultural equity. The piece uses a combination of documentary footage and animation.

Producer/Director: Eboni Zamani
Produced by: Pearl’s Girl Productions
Cinematographer/Editor: Stephanie Malson
This short documentary takes a look at the impact that the dual pandemics of COVID 19 and racism have had on the lives of Black people in Philadelphia. We speak with Sanitation Worker and Advocate Terrill Haigler, Community Organizer Shakira King and Nurse Toni T. about their lives during 2020. We discuss what life has been like for them during a year of civil unrest, personal loss, economic crisis, and a global health crisis.


THE LAST RESPONDER
Producer/Director: Nikki Harmon
Cinematographer: Stephanie Malson
Editor: M. Asli Dukan
A Philadelphia undertaker discusses the impact the pandemic has had on his business and his life. Keith Hodges is the director of the Beckett, Brown, and Hodges Funeral Home in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The funeral home services primarily African-American families and has been overwhelmed with the bereaved needing their assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funding: The project is funded in part by Independence Public Media Foundation.

In the diverse and divided neighborhood of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with mom and pop shops closing all around them, several small business owners work tirelessly and creatively to keep their doors open during the Covid-19 PAUSE order, experiencing understandable fear, interminable hope, radical generosity, and even miraculous visions.

Lorenzo Terry is a black cosplay performer who seeks to inspire and motivate his audience with the power of Costume Play.

Produced by Sari Leigh, owner of Anacostia Yogi Media, a health and wellness media company based east of the Anacostia river in Washington, D.C.

In 2016 I went to vote at the same polling place where I was registered and had voted for a decade. This time I was told my name wasn’t on the voter rolls and was asked if wanted a provisional ballot. Reluctantly, I voted with a provisional ballot because I knew a dirty little secret about US voting: Provisional ballots do not have to be counted.

After casting my ballot, I decided to investigate my vanished voter registration, and wondered if my vote vanished because of Interstate Crosscheck, centralized corporate voting systems, or the Russians?