In The Same Breath (2021)

The filmmaker, Nanfu Wang, is also the narrator of this film, which has been shortlisted for the Oscars for Best Documentary. This is her second appearance on this list, with her last documentary, One Child, making a similar appearance. This fim explores =f how political narratives and public health collided in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in both China and in the United States, and and that these are still happening in both countries in different ways. The film opens with the denial of the seriousness of the novel virus in China, even arresting those who raised the alarm early on, then with incredible access within China, she shows security footage of the sick and ailing coming in to a private clinic near the wet market where it is beleived that it all started going back as fat as November, 2019, and then how the whole thing played out in Wuhan. The contrast between a totalitarian dictatorship versus a democracy doesn't leave one feeling that either served its people well, and marveling at the filmaker's access to material from China in order to tell that half of the story is even handed. Her juxtaposition of censorship afflicting Chinese citizens from speaking out—from telling the truth to the rest of the world—against the ways freedom of speech in America slowed the proper response to the virus, is just as balanced.