Synopsis

In an age when mobile phones can be used as video cameras, citizen journalism has become a vital form of documenting important, world-changing events. When the COVID-19 crisis ends, these videos will be key to telling its story to future generations. Despite living in Europe, provocative Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei managed to amass nearly 500 hours of footage captured by ordinary citizens affected by Wuhan’s strict quarantine lockdown in spring 2020. The result is this thought-provoking documentary about life during lockdown, the Chinese government’s militarised response to the pandemic, and the dangers of a crisis management system so brutally efficient that transparency and humanity are forgotten in the process.