2021 Online Video Storytelling – Pandemic – Individual

Washington State was hit early and tragically by the COVID-19 pandemic, as the virus ravaged nursing homes in the spring of 2020. When Hoang Dinh Nguyen fell ill in his Issaquah nursing home in March, his family could not be with him, nor could they be with each other. Still, they found ways to connect — and sustain each other — despite keeping physical distance. Using socially distanced filming techniques, interviews over Zoom and the family’s own intimate footage of Nguyen’s final moments, this short film follows the family’s journey navigating the virus and loss in the early days of the pandemic and explores their legacy of resilience.

For the more than 4,000 homeless people in Multnomah County, Oregon, the mid-March stay-home order to curb the spread of COVID-19 prompted different anxieties. Not afforded the luxury of worrying about the virus’ spread, they focused their attention on securing basic needs with the dwindling of resources they’d relied on before — an open Starbucks to use the bathroom and wash their hands, a community kitchen offering a meal, community centers with computers and Wi-Fi, a place to charge a cellphone. Raven Drake, 36, is a former combat medic who served three tours in Iraq. When she came out as transgender back in her town in Indiana, she didn’t feel supported and so she took a Greyhound bus to Portland. She used her medical training and connections within the community to help set up three shelter-in-place camps for about 125 houseless people who were particularly vulnerable to the virus. “Things are tough, but we have very resilient people out here. So we just keep surviving,” she said. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Goxb1opuUIo&t=114s

For people with disabilities, Ability360’s fitness center in Phoenix, Arizona, is not just a gym. It’s a gift, a lifeline, a privilege, a necessity. When the fitness center at Ability360, closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic its members adapted, as they have been for much of their lives.

Many Hmong flower farmers didn’t know what to do when the novel coronavirus outbreak shut down most of Pike Place Market in mid-March, ahead of their busiest season – and for many, their first income of the year. But it’s not the first time these families had to overcome what felt impossible.