On and off campus, University students have felt the intense effects of the pandemic as their college experiences have forever been altered by online classes, weekly COVID-19 testing, and restrictions on almost every aspect of college life. For film students Abbi Abraham ’23, Eli Kilpatrick ’23, and Isabel Echavarria ’23, the pandemic provided the perfect backdrop for an independent documentary. Tentatively titled “Covid Campus,” the film focuses on the experiences of University students over the past year and a half.

“As of right now, the film is a collection of interviews on different individuals’ experiences, both in the spring, leaving campus, throughout the summer, and sort of the preparation for coming back to campus,” Echavarria said. “Watching the film you get to experience a wide array of experiences and perspectives on how the semester panned out.” 

The film was conceived after the trio became close through a club last spring, called “The Workshop.” The group stayed in touch after students were sent home in March, 2020.

“We kept the club going on Zoom and as we met regularly, we couldn’t help but recount and reflect on the growing chaos of the summer,” Abraham said. “All of these factors were making it more and more uncertain as to whether the semester would go ahead.” 

When Abraham proposed the idea of making a documentary about the pandemic, Kilpatrick and Echavarria were on board.

“After that point, after we all agreed that this was an idea worth going forward with, we began doing research and collectively brainstorming on how to create a safe shooting process, contacting people for interviews, and just trying to ensure that all aspects of production would be met,” Abraham said. 

Kilpatrick explained how the team took steps to manage filming while also following COVID-19 health guidelines.

“We took a lot of steps with preparation,” Kilpatrick said. “We practiced interviews on ourselves and how we would conduct interviews. I think we have pictures of us just totally spaced out with the camera six feet away from the subject.” 

Despite having to navigate this new way of filming, the team was eventually able to find their groove and overcome restrictions.

“We kind of learned it quickly,” Kilpatrick said. “I think it kind of felt like the challenges fell by the wayside by the time it got to like October, November.

The trio also created a set of COVID-19 guidelines to follow when filming, and met with their interviewees to explain to them how the shooting process would work prior to them being interviewed. One of the team’s biggest challenges was their lack of control over the light and sound they had when working outside, such as cars honking.

The team also did not receive financial support from the University, meaning they’ve been using their own equipment to shoot. Fortunately, they have been using school desktops to edit, which has been a significant help.

“There’s a bunch of computer labs that we can use to edit with Adobe,” Kilpatrick said.“That’s been a huge benefit since we don’t have to rely on our laptops. Other than that, we’ve been able to source the materials ourselves.”

The film also focuses on the University’s response to the pandemic and other questions of equity that arose again over the summer. The trio interviewed student activists like Alice Swan ’21, a member of Ujamaa who helped to write the group’s letter to the University administration, which was published last year. They also connected with students like Bryan Chong ’21 and Maya Gomberg ’22, both of whom have worked with Middletown Mutual Aid.

The trio is also collaborating with other students on campus, including Audrey Mills ’23, who is composing the musical score for the film, and Spencer Klink ’24, who is creating animation for them.

Despite the film’s heavy subject matter, the trio has also gained plenty of experience and joy from the production.

“It’s really cool to get to document people’s experiences–to have people sit in front of a camera and just talk about how they were feeling and what they were doing and what they did when they got sent home,” Echavarria said. “I’ve developed an appreciation for learning about people’s experiences in the past and know that it’s important to document what’s going on so that people in the future can learn from what was happening.”

For Kilpatrick, the documentary has also offered an escape from the monotony of classes, and has presented the opportunity to be involved in a hands-on project.

“It was really cool to put what I’ve learned already into practice and actually feel like, okay, ‘I’m doing something,’” he said.

Abraham also described the feeling of working on a project created out of passion.

“When you want to do something, you can actually just do it,” she said. “Having other people who also kind of share that same mindset and are passionate and driven, and also like documenting a subject, which deserves that kind of attention, I think is incredibly rewarding, personally.” 

The documentary, which is currently at the end of the editing process, will be available in the coming months. A trailer will be released soon.

 

Talia Zitner can be reached at tzitner@wesleyan.edu or on Instagram @yagirltal.