ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
This experimental documentary marks the culmination of a call for work from filmmakers, artists, and writers across the United States. Weaving together cinematic tableaux and intimate audio interviews, Journal of the Plague Year is a visual tone poem, verging on science fiction, that probes our nation's pandemic-induced identity crisis. We watch ourselves as if from a panopticon: fearful, alone, constantly commodified, and yet ever striving for change.

SYNOPSIS
In much of America everything stands still. It is a time when we can learn from the absence of old givens and the emergence of new norms. While surely a time of grief and trauma for some, for others it is a unique respite, a time to ponder what could be.

What does it look like, feel like, sound like when our country is forced to take a deep breath? When the air becomes clearer, when the traffic sounds recede, and bird songs become audible? Yes, this pause is forced upon us, but weren’t these questions already on the tip of our tongues before the COVID-19 crisis? Weren’t many of us living under a malaise of gloom, doom and a growing anxiety that the planet had had just about enough of us? Didn’t we all wonder if it was time to slow down and envision a different future for our country, humanity and the planet?

JOURNAL OF A PLAGUE YEAR is an audio-visual journey across America, a collection of evocative visual tableaux culled from talented filmmakers and storytellers nationwide. What are people thinking right now, what becomes palpably present in these great absences, and might it be possible for a different world to emerge when this crisis has passed?

This film would not exist without the community behind its making. It is first and foremost a collaborative effort.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Keith Fulton, Lou Pepe, David Auerbach
PRODUCER Keith Fulton, Lou Pepe, David Auerbach
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Ari Ioannides, Maida Lynn