Since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in December, reactions in the Western Hemisphere have varied from mixing to harmful (jokes about Corona beer) to racism and xenophobic (a significant decline in business in Ch inatown throughout the United States.
Film actor Lan Bo earlier had traveled to the city of Wuhan to shoot the film. A site shutdown to try to contain the virus, which took place on January 23, means staff are forced to change their plans. Together in Wuhan, they decided to use their time and efforts to document what was happening around them.
The resulting short, which began on the Chinese platform Weibo before the demise of Western social media (also available for viewing online), offers a true overview of Wuhan as the city is successfully cut off from the rest of the world. Although Wuhan has a population of 14 million, the mobile device installed by Lan and his team is a ghost town. Few, if any, people roam the city, the streets and highways are almost deserted, and, in a very short sequence, a man goes out his window to an empty street, singing "My Mother and I."
"They want to do something meaningful," Said Lan. "Since closed, there has been no video presenting such strong views (…) I feel that these will be important images for historical references and other documents."
Encouraged by the success of this brief, Lan plans to make a documentary on Wuhan in Lockdown, focusing on how the people left in the city are affected.
