London | In the Same Boat: A China Pandemic Diary
March 20 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
By spring 2025, it will have been over two years since China “declared the end” of COVID. Life has resumed its normal rhythms with hardly a backward glance as history moves rapidly forward. Yet new personal narratives continue to emerge from the margins, reminding us that many stories remain untold and many wounds unhealed. While official history can be reconstructed, individual experiences remain authentic and resistant to erasure.
‘In the Same Boat’ was the ubiquitous official slogan during the pandemic, supposedly embodying collective unity through shared hardship. Yet these films reveal how differently the storm was weathered across society, with lived realities often contradicting this unified narrative. When personal suffering is subsumed under narratives of national heroism and patriotism, individual struggles are ignored through what is called “soft burial” – where traumatic memories are neither openly confronted nor denied, but rather gradually obscured beneath official accounts, leaving historical fractures concealed by a carefully manufactured harmony.
This exhibition presents five independent Chinese short films that capture pandemic experiences absent from official accounts. These works span different cities and phases of China’s three-year COVID period, preserving alternative memories that might otherwise be lost. Through these films, we confront social trauma directly, witnessing the everyday absurdities, personal pain, systemic powerlessness, and moments of resistance that defined this era.
2025年春，距新冠疫情在中國「宣告結束」已2年有餘，生活幾乎毫不回頭地恢復常態，歷史加速翻開新篇章。然而，在那些倖存下來的聲音碎片中，我們仍能聽到一群人對疫情時代的回望與反思；新的個體敘事從邊緣處湧現，提醒我們許多故事仍未被挖掘，許多創傷仍未被撫平。歷史可被重構，個體經驗卻赤裸真實，難以被抹去。
「同舟共濟」是彼時水深火熱的「城市保衛戰」中反覆回蕩的口號，暗含團結合作、共渡難關的集體主義精神。然而，當苦難被納入集體英雄主義和國家民族主義的宏大敘事之下，個體的掙扎與困境往往被消解和忽視。記憶被「軟埋」，歷史的裂痕被精心製造的和諧所隱匿。
此次影展將放映与疫情相关的5部華語獨立短片，試圖以微弱的力量填補主流歷史敘事中的空缺，回溯一段至今仍未完全定義、消化或紀念的歷史。這些作品跨越疫情的不同階段、不同城市，保存下另一種關於疫情的記憶。在這些影像中，我們將直面社會的歷史創傷，重新見證彼時日常生活的荒誕、個人的傷痛、置身系統的無力，以及星星之火般的抵抗。
Additional source:
Wang Jing, ‘Lockdown Sound Diaries.’
声东击西, “#240 请收下这枚记录 2022 年的声音时光胶囊” (Podcast).
端傳媒Initium Media, 中国疫情电影：为什么我们仍旧不断在影像中回望疫情？
端傳媒Initium Media,【端對談】方方 X 白睿文：面對歷史創傷，誰將記憶「軟埋」？
My Quarantine Bear 我的隔离熊
Director: Ma Weijia马维佳
China, France, 2021, 35’
当疫情袭来法国时，马维佳正在斯特拉斯堡制作一部动画片。面对即将封城，她不得不逃到里昂和朋友在一起相互照顾，然后再买机票回到上海。从飞行到抵达后在酒店十四天的隔离，她用自己的镜头记录下了这一路的旅程。这部带有浪漫喜剧气息的电影日记，用幽默与大胆的形式创新，回溯了这段特殊的经历。
Weijia Ma was working on an animation film in Strasbourg when COVID descends on France. She very quickly fled to Lyon before returning to Shanghai. From the flight to her quarantine in a hotel on arrival, this filmed diary with its airs of romantic comedy uses humour and great formal invention to retrace the experience of this journey.
Awards & Festivals:
Special Mention, Visions du Réel 2021 (World Premiere)
入围第52届瑞士真实影展
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvpBqXviQQ0
Shanghai Reset 二次校准
Director: Hu Qiao胡峤
China, 2022, 5’
系统似乎正在与人类探讨关于一些事物的看法。2022年4月底的上海，当导演被允许三天自由出行时，他在街头拍摄了这段影片。
The system appears to be discussing opinions with humans about something. The film came from three days of free travel permission and was shot on the streets of Shanghai at the end of April 2022.
Awards & Festivals:
Selected for the 16th FIRST International Film Festival – Short Short Film
入围第16届FIRST青年电影展 超短片
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv-JL79KaDY
The Memo 备忘录
Director: Badlands Film Group穷山恶水电影小组
China, 2023, 30’
2022年春天，新冠病毒在上海大流行，而在官方堅持清零政策下，全市2400萬人遭強制禁足。受困貧窮社區的電影人，以手機、電視、網路等手邊素材為底，捕捉了封城下的荒謬封控、官⺠衝突，與一場注定失敗的人⺠抵抗。當歷史被美化、網路被和諧，記憶會淡忘，我們需要電影來備忘。
This is a video diary of the surreal lockdown made by the filmmaker couple who were trapped in a small, rented apartment in Shanghai. In the face of endless madness, the camera gradually breaks free from the window and observes a vast social isolation unprecedented in the country’s history.
Awards & Festivals:
Best Documentary Short Film at the 60th Taiwan Golden Horse Awards
Youth Jury Award at the Liberation DocFest
Experimental Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
International Competition at the Hamburg Short Film Festival
Kölner Kino Festival
Taiwan International Documentary Festival
Selected for the Southern Film Festival
第60届台湾金马奖最佳纪录短片奖
孟加拉解放纪录片节青年评审团奖
克莱蒙费宏国际影展实验竞赛
汉堡国际短片电影节国际竞赛
科隆电影节大观单元
台湾国际纪录片影展致敬！华语独立
南方影展纪录类入围
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TwB49yNgrE
Bye Bye Barrier! 水马再见！
Director: Wan Qing & Zhang Hanlu万青&张涵露
China, 2022, 14’29
2022年11月14日凌晨，广州宣布解封海珠区（地理上的江心岛）东西角，中部封控区接连被水马和铁皮包围，民间称作“一区两治”。住在西海珠的涵露在离开广州前询问朋友是否需要她的物资，住在中海珠的万青认领了部分食材。两人相约在封控边界的水马处交接，并沿途拍摄；在完成各自视角的剪辑后，组合成了这个双屏视频。
One early morning in November 2022, Guangzhou announced the unblocking of the east and west corners of Haizhu District, and the middle blocked area was surrounded by water-filled barriers and tin walls overnight – which was called “one district, two regulations” by citizens. Hanlu, who lived in west Haizhu, asked her friends if they needed her supplies before she leaving Guangzhou, and Wan Qing, who lived in middle Haizhu, claimed some of the ingredients. The two made an appointment to meet at the water-filled barriers at the blocked border and filmed along the way. After the editing of their own perspectives, they combined them to form this two-screen video.
Spring 23 春二十三
Director: Wang Zhiyi 王知疑
China, 2024, 13’
禁燃禁放的2023年春节，一个刚处理完父母丧事的年轻人想要买些烟花。
A young man who has just finished handling the funeral of his parents attempts to purchase some fireworks for the 2023 Spring Festival, where fireworks are prohibited.
Awards & Festivals:
Oberhausen Short Film Festival: Oberhausen Grand Prize and FIPRESCI Prize
Selected for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival
Nominated for Best Narrative Short Film at the 18th FIRST International Film Festival
奥伯豪森短片影展奥伯豪森大奖和影评人费比西奖
克莱蒙费宏影展参展
第18届FIRST青年电影展提名最佳剧情短片
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTDVBbTpC4w
*Programme supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery. www.filmlondon.org.uk/filmhub