As China abruptly lifts its "zero-COVID" policies, leaving many grappling with the sudden change, we look back at our personal stories during the still-recent lockdown in Shanghai, which lasted for two full months over the spring of 2022. Through sharing the unique experiences about food, pain, and even parenthood, we found in each other not only healing and support, but also a fresh understanding of what lies ahead of us.
Nominee
Len & His Spitfire
As a young child of the 1920’s, Len sustained serious injuries from a dynamite blast cap. As a young adult, despite his disability, he enlisted in the fight against the Germans in World War II. Adventures and near deaths ensue, after he finds himself in the cockpit of a Spitfire.
Imalirijit
Tim is a young father living in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. As his grandfather did before, he wants to start his own research to study water quality to benefit its community. Tim embarks on an inspiring journey that will lead to empowerment and cultural revitalization. The experience becomes an awakening for Tim and his team, a wind of change and adaptation for the community challenging the modern reality of the Canadian Arctic.
Amuka – The Awakening
The Democratic Republic of Congo could feed almost 1 in 2 people on Earth.
Yet one in six Congolese people suffer from hunger.
Yet one in two Congolese suffers from acute malnutrition.
Yet agriculture accounts for 70% of the population there.
Faced with this paradox, the peasants regroup in agricultural cooperatives. A handful of them share their daily lives with us, that of all those they represent.
Me, Mahmoud and the Mint Plant
While working in war-torn Mosul, Iraq, in 2017, Canadian nurse Trish Newport developed an unlikely friendship with Mahmoud – a local man who carried a mint plant with him wherever he went.
As Trish uncovered the mystery behind Mahmoud's precious plant, she discovered the power of keeping promises to the people you love…no matter how small.
Muse
1980. Bright young photographer George arrives at art school, eager to learn and become a great artist. It is here he meets unorthodox teacher Lindsay. Among Lindsay's radical ideas, wrapped up in charm, he tells his students that to be a truly great artist one must experience life trauma. As well as making George face up to his traumatic past, Lindsay gives him a special ‘gift’ – he seduces him and then betrays him. Will George’s trauma make him the great Artist (with a capital A), or destroy h