COVERING UP
‘In the Same Breath’ unmasks pain, truth
For filmmaker Nanfu Wang, it’s not about the virus, it’s about the coverup.
The acclaimed documentary director shows the harm that nations — first China and then the U.S. and other western countries — did by downplaying COVID-19 in her new film “In the Same Breath,” debuting on HBO on Wednesday.
“It was so urgent and I was so compelled,” the Emmy nominee, 35, told the Daily News. “The stories have to be told.”
Wang, who was raised in China and has lived in the States for about a decade, was worried about the government silencing those who spoke out and wanted to ensure she captured the truth before both evidence and whistleblowers disappeared.
She recruited people in Wuhan, where the virus was first identified in late 2019, to do much of the filming while she directed from her home in New Jersey.
Many crewmembers were wary of capturing goings-on that would challenge the Communist Party’s narrative about the triumph over the virus — concerns that weren’t unfounded.
Wang’s 2016 film, “Hooligan Sparrow,” about a child-rape case in China and the resulting protests by activists, and her 2019 film, “One Child Nation,” about the country’s one-child policy, had resulted in threats against her mother, brother and uncle, who still live in China.
“Some of them [were] interrogated for days in a row,” she recalled. “It is really hard for me to make a decision to say, ‘OK, I think they will be fine’ and continue to do what I do. And each time, it gave me pause . ... It doesn’t hurt me that much if anything happens to me, but it’s really painful to imagine if anything would happen to my family members.”
The government’s reaction to the release of “In the Same Breath” is “definitely something that I’m concerned [about],” she said.
The film hones in on people who suffered as a result of the governments’ negligence, from Wuhan locals to New York nurses.
Making the film took a toll on Wang, who felt like she “experienced the outbreak twice.
“Everyone tells me their probably most painful loss in their life and the conversation lasts for hours and hours, and I would go from one family, talk to another person, talk to another person,” she continued. “And I would cry with them when they cry on the phone, which most of them did. And I would hang up ... and cry myself and then think, ‘Oh my God, just, how do I process this and how do I convey this?’ ”
Certain to trigger déjà vu for many viewers, “In the Same Breath” raises questions of “What if?” throughout. But it isn’t just the virus itself that threatens our safety, says Wang.
Two of the film’s subjects mourn the spouse or child they lost to COVID-19, recount being turned away from hospitals filled to the brim and then point to the importance of prioritizing the country’s needs over their own grief.
“I was like, ‘Wow, you just lost your husband and your son and you don’t see [the government is responsible]?’ But at the same time, it’s like, why would I be surprised, knowing how effective the propaganda is? ... They can’t think critically.”
Wang was optimistic that “the pandemic was going to wake up a lot of people and make them want to demand ... transparency and want to hold them accountable, want a change. But it didn’t.”