The Voices of New Yorkers Sheltering in Place

A filmmaker left notes for his neighbors to call him with their anxieties, hopes, and dreams during the coronavirus pandemic.

[projector whirring][bell dinging][phone ringing]- Hello?- I have to admit that untilmaybe last week, I was wrong,or I was not uninformed,but I didn't really,I didn't really take it seriously, maybe?- You know, this timearound, it's so broad.Everybody's getting it basically.Like after Tom Hanks got it, it was like,oh that's it, that meansanybody can get it.- I had just what felt like a bad cold.Nasal congestion, runnynose, stuff like that.None of the telltalesigns or what we thinkare the telltale signs of the virusbecause it seems to presentin a bunch of different ways.- You hear stories abouthealthy athletes dying from it,or some older people manage to survive.So it's like, just no way totell how it's going to affecta particular individual andI am a little bit older,and do have some health issues.- Hello, right now I'veopened up my window.I'm exposed to the outside.I don't know, the virus canbe transmitted through the airso I wear a face mask, Idon't want to take that risk.- I got sick on the 11th,nobody can get a test.It's like I [laughing] wasthinking a week or so ago,maybe I should go up to Canada.It's much easier to get tested up there.[coughing]- I'm not worried about my familiesbecause in China,they're worried about me.- I mean, I had a reallybad dream last nightwhich was really scary.I dreamt that I had to fly homeand I didn't know where home was.And I had all my things.I had to pack them really, really quickly.And I didn't have enoughtime to pack them.And then I saw as I packedthat there was still much moreand I had to make the decisions,what am I gonna take with me,am I ever gonna see that again?It feels so much to beout of control, you know?- It's like a sense of purposelessness.[clearing throat]How we're not able todo anything productive.And the other thing isI'm a trained doctor.I'm a licensed physicianback home in India,but I don't have alicense to practice here,so I can't really do anythingon that front either.- I was depressed over the weekend,and I think that was in partto just having too much time on my hands.- I'm just an anxious person anyway.But during this time, I'vecertainly broken down,and you know, had the girlfriend come homefrom the grocery store andfound me on the couch crying.The open window on the thirdfloor, there he is waving.- Where, oh over there.I've had a friend who wasactually at my birthday partylike three weeks agowho now has the virus.And so, it's startingto get closer and closerto our inner circle.Eventually it's gonna beimpossible to hide from this.- My roommate has asthma.He's a lot more scared than I am.And he said he hasn'tbeen feeling well, so...But I'm not gonna let himblame me for him getting sickbecause yes, maybe he didget something from me,but he could have gotten it anywhere.And even if I did give it to him,it's just part of livingtogether and we're partnered.- Oh god, seeing all thesepeople with their suitcases.Where are they going?There's somebody here again leaving.I've been seeing this all week.I've been seeing peopleleave, where are they going?Do you know where they're going?- He mentioned to methat he left the city.He said, "We're on anisland of like 6,000 people"just off the coast of such and such,"and we just didn't wannabe in New York anymore."This coronavirus thinglooks like it's gettin' real,"so we figured we'd get outwhile the gettin's good."And I don't know, as soon as you seethe rich people fleeing,[laughing] that was the first momentwhere I was like, "Ah, fuck!"- It just astonishes me because in China,people get tested very often.And when you find someonethat carries the virus,that person can be quarantinedso that the spread,the spread of the virusfrom this particular personcan be stopped, otherwiseyou let these people carrythe virus just going around in the publicand you don't know where they are.And if you don't know who carry the virus,naturally, obviously the spreadof the virus will accelerate.- Just the leadership at the federal levelis just so frightening.- Even the best informedamong us don't seemto really know what the hell is going on.Which is usually the case, butit's just more apparent now.- It will be interestingonce this is over,if anybody brings upa lawsuit against him,once he's out of power of course,that he was responsiblefor these many deaths.Sort of a class action suit of survivors.- You know, healthcareprofessionals and everybody,from the cleaners allthe way up to the doctorsare being treated is just to me, horrific.- I was just talkingto a friend yesterday.He's a resident at a hospital in Brooklyn.And he was telling me thatthere's someone dying every hour.They have a refrigeratedtruck outside their hospital,because their morgue doesn'thave space to store bodies.I mean, it's taking a realheavy emotional toll on them.- I think it's interestingalso, to see who the realessential workers in oursociety are, you know?- I feel bad for thepeople that are out theredelivering all these packages right now.So, and I also feel alittle guilty because I havemail-ordered some stuffso I don't have to go out.- I don't think that'sever been more apparenthow much we need thosepeople as now, and you know,chefs cooking our mealsso that we can stillget delivery even thoughwe're quarantined in hereis something that we need to recognizeas really, really fuckin' important.- It seems like everybody on every levelis struggling at the moment.So I don't know what's goingto happen when this is over,in terms of what kind ofbusinesses will there beand how will people be ableto make a living, and things like that.- You know, there's justso much uncertainty.It's an odd time for all of us.We don't know how far into thefuture we can look right now.- Yesterday I was looking, you know,I wanted to file for unemployment.And all of a sudden, I didthe whole registering thingor signing up thing, whatever,and then all of a suddenI couldn't continue.It said like, I forgot what it said.But it was like you can't continue here'cause maybe they'reoverloaded or something.- A lot of people do not havea lot of money in their bank account.And when they, when they lose their jobs,when they do not have income,how can they afford their rent and food?This situation cannot last long.- Yeah, it's really hard to say, I mean,I hope it's not as parallelto the early 20th centurywith the Great Depression and everything.But people are saying it maybe, which is like oh my god.- Fundamentally we,society, civility, all of itis just sort of, in real lifeI think it's not a facade,but it's flimsy, it'sthe difference between usbeing nice to one anotherand robbing one anotheris just a matter of degrees.And so, sometimes when an externalitylike a virus comes alongand shakes up the economy,and the housing market,and the jobs market,and everything, there's this chancethat all of that mightjust sort of shake apart.And if that happens, thenwe're back to survival.- Yeah, I was thinking alot about young people.They maybe, they mightlook in 50 years from now,they might look back and say,"Can you believe whatthe previous generations,"what damage they did?"And how was that possible?"Because they lived so irresponsibly."- One thing to remember issomething like this happening is natural.Humans have faced variousepidemics and pandemics,but we still made it through.- These things are kind ofbound to happen, you know?This is just the way biology works.- Survival's an innate drive,so I don't think anybodyever really wants to die.Butthis is being likebrought front and center,that we have to confront our mortality.And it is scary, yeah.- I wanna travel so much more.And I wanna start afamily, I wanna have kids.Yeah, so there's stilllike so much, you know?[laughing]- I was so looking forward to the spring.But it's a different spring now.- I don't think it makessense to most people, really.I think we're all feeling our way throughtrying to make senseout of what's going on.I think all we can keep doing isputting one foot in front ofthe other and keep moving.[cheering][applauding][dramatic music][banging][wolf calling][intense music]