CBC Docs today released a collection of short documentary films, ALONE TOGETHER: PERSONAL STORIES FROM THE PANDEMIC, featuring original productions by Canadian filmmakers selected and funded by the CBC Creative Relief Fund, as announced in June. The films offer compelling moments captured by a diversity of voices living through the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a unique look back at 2020. The collection is now available on the free CBC Gem streaming service and currently features 12 documentaries, with three additional titles launching before the end of the year.
The CBC Creative Relief Fund was created to provide immediate funding into the Canadian creative community. In addition to this CBC Short Docs project stream, the Fund has provided more than $2 million in development and production funding for original Canadian storytelling, including scripted comedies and dramas, unscripted entertainment, kids and young adult programming and podcasts and play adaptations.
A trailer is available here, and more information about the ALONE TOGETHER short documentaries follows:
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COVID & WHO I AM NOW (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Diana Dai, Toronto, Ontario)
After a young Chinese-Canadian medical student is attacked during the COVID-19 pandemic, she goes on a deep emotional journey exploring her identity amid rising anti-Chinese racism. -
INENDI (Short Doc, 1×44, directed by Sarain Fox, Tottenham, Ontario)
With a pandemic threatening to take her elders, Sarain Fox sits with her oldest matriarch, Mary Bell, to gather stories and preserve her Indigenous cultural legacy. -
KING COVID (Short Doc, 1×10, directed by Lulu Keating, Dawson City, Yukon)
What does the pandemic look like from the point of view of the COVID-19 virus? In this provocative and whimsical animated film, the virus voices his mission to save the planet! -
LAST NIGHT AT THE STRIP CLUB (Short Doc, 1×12, directed by Nicole Bazuin, Toronto, Ontario)
Andrea Werhun, a Toronto stripper, was ousted from her club by COVID-19. Now, she’s taking business online as a muse for lonely men, while struggling to realize her own creative ambitions. -
LIFE OF A DOG (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Danae Elon and Rosana Matecki, Montréal, Quebec)
Montreal filmmakers confront their lives in isolation in this film about motherhood, childhood, and two dogs during lockdown. -
LOCKDOWN BABY (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Ian Mark Kimanje, Kitchener, Ontario)
Pregnancy and birth are overwhelming on their own, but when a couple brings life into the world at a time when everyone else is preoccupied by death, they gather strength and get creative to show their kids what love looks like from a distance. -
ME, MOM & COVID (Short Doc, 1×30, directed by Nik Sexton, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador)
A Newfoundland family lives through lockdown, coping with their sister’s mental disability, the death of their mother, and the fallout from a local COVID-19 cluster. -
PANDEMIC ELEMENTARY (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Geordie Trifa, Britannia Beach, British Columbia)
What if kids chose their own curriculum? In the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, a British Columbia family tries out a radical version of homeschooling. -
PATIENT PEOPLE (Short Doc, 1×16, directed by Corey Stanton, Thornhill, Ontario)
Meet six new doctors who are working during COVID-19, in a world that’s very different from what they expected when they graduated from med school in 2017. -
QUIET TIME (Short Doc, 1×24, directed by Van Royko and Marie-Phillippe Gilbert, Montréal, Quebec)
What happens to restless documentary filmmakers when the biggest story of our time is an invisible threat, impossible to capture on film? They turn the cameras on themselves. -
ROCKIN’ THE COFFIN (Short Doc, 1×9, directed by Cailleah Scott-Grimes, Toronto, Ontario)
In this whimsical animated documentary, a father and daughter discuss the creative ways they deal with the idea of death. They decide to build a coffin together by hand during the COVID-19 pandemic. -
TOMOMI ON THE FARM (Short Doc, 1×12, directed by Craig Range, Turtleford, Saskatchewan and British Columbia)
When Tomomi and her husband lose their jobs in Vancouver due to COVID-19, they move to his parents’ elk farm in Saskatchewan, in the middle of winter..
Coming soon:
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RECOVERY (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Sura Mallouh, Ontario and Alberta)
Two young adults from opposite ends of Canada relieve the experience of surviving COVID-19. As they struggle to cope with the long, unknown recovery ahead, their conversations become a form of therapy. -
SAKHI-PITIYAHTE [BRIGHT LIGHT COMES FORTH FROM IT] (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Carr Sappier, Tobique First Nation, New Brunswick)
Inspired by the landscapes of the Wolastoqey community of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation), the film captures the importance of nature, culture, and storytelling during the COVID-19 pandemic. -
UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE (Short Doc, 1×20, directed by Tiffany Hsiung, Toronto, Ontario)
Begins streaming Friday, December 18
With his industry on lockdown and no end in sight, Toronto chef Luke Donato tries to keep his culinary passion alive during the COVID-19 pandemic, even if it means teaching a group of misfits online.