A Canadian filmmaker read the headlines, and a few weeks later a shoot was underway on a story addressing xenophobia and the pandemic. Then film festivals were canceled.
In between the time the coronavirus started to make headlines but before life shut down to restrain the pandemic, an independent filmmaker conceived, shot and finished postproduction on a movie about the contagion.
Thanks to the availability of relatively cheap digital equipment, there is rarely much lag time these days between real-life events — like Hurricane Sandy in 2012 or the Japanese tsunami in 2011 — and films about them. But this new movie, by Mostafa Keshvari, is unusual in that it was made even as the story is still unfolding.
Keshvari’s 63-minute “Corona” looks at what happens when seven people are trapped in an elevator, and begin to realize that one of them has Covid-19. The movie is about fear and “a study of society, people and moral choices,” Keshvari, 33, said in recent phone and email interviews about the movie. “We are all in this ride together.”
Vancouver, known as “Hollywood North,” is Canada’s gateway to Asia, and also an epicenter in the country’s Covid-19 crisis. As news reached here of a “Wuhan virus,” there were increasing reports of harassment of Chinese-Canadians and others of Asian heritage. Patronage of Chinese-Canadian businesses dropped by up to 70 percent.
The filmmaker was in an elevator reading the headlines when he had the idea.
“There were just so many incidents,” said Keshvari, who also runs BC Minorities in Film & TV Society, a network for budding artists from minority backgrounds. At the time he embarked on his project, “nobody thought a white person could get it. But the virus doesn’t discriminate.”
In real life, “everyone faces discrimination, all different kinds,” he said, so if he could “bring all these people” together in the film and “trap them,” he thought, then their “true colors come out.”
Starting in late January, he spent two weeks writing the script; the set took 10 more days to create. “We rented a space and we built an elevator,” he said. “Ultralow budget.”
Some cast members he already knew; others he found through word of mouth. The director also left room to improvise. “I told them: ‘Imagine that the actual coronavirus is in this elevator.’”
He wanted the action to unfold in real time, he said. “My struggle was to make sure it was all one shot,” Keshvari said.
Over three days in February, it took nearly 70 takes to pull that off. Money was running out. And time. “It helped with the anxiety of the film,” he said.
Outside, the coronavirus moved fast. “We thought it was just going to pass,” Keshvari said. “No one could have imagined.”
He had planned to submit the film, finished before the city declared a state of emergency, to festivals. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore,” he said, as nearly every such event has been canceled for the foreseeable future. Streaming is the most likely option. The movie “belongs to humanity,” he said.
As for Keshvari’s cast and his crew of 25, he said, so far they are well. (New York Times)
A Coronavirus Thriller Was Finished Just Before the Shutdown
UEFA puts all football on hold but target August
Uefa has called off June’s round of international fixtures, including the Euro 2020 play-offs, and has postponed the current Champions League and Europa League campaigns until further notice amid the coronavirus crisis. It is understood that one option under consideration is that the two club competitions could now be completed in July and August.
The governing body of European football met on Wednesday with general secretaries or chief executives of all its affiliated 55 national football associations, including the four British FAs, to receive updates from two working groups formed on 17 March to plot a way the game can resume following the total shutdown of professional sport this past month. The outcome was an almost complete suspension of activity until further notice, from youth competitions to the continent’s most prestigious tournaments in both the men’s and women’s games.
With this summer’s men’s European Championship having already been postponed until 2021, pressure to complete the play-offs – which include Scotland v Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina v Northern Ireland and Slovakia v Republic of Ireland – is not imminent. England’s two scheduled friendly matches in June, in Austria and at home to Romania at Villa Park, are also off.
The question of what to do with the Champions League and Europa League, however, is more pressing. Both competitions were suspended in March with four ties remaining to be completed in the Champions League last 16, including Manchester City’s with Real Madrid and Chelsea’s with Bayern Munich. In the Europa League, none of the eight last-16 ties have been completed, with two first legs yet to take place.
African economy will lose up to $200 billion in the next nine months
An initial analysis by McKinsey, a US management consulting firm, predicts that the African economy will lose between $90 billion and $200 billion over the next nine months alone.
The research oversees four scenarios that show that African GDP could shrink by between 3 to 8 percent in 2020 that translates into a loss of between $90 billion and $200 billion for African economies.
Although according to the projects that things are going to get worse particularly if containment measures do not prove effective, in the absence of major fiscal stimulus, this pandemic is likely to tip Africa into further economic contraction in 2020.
To gauge the possible extent of this impact, McKinsey modeled four scenarios for how differing rates of COVID-19 transmission – both globally and within Africa – would affect Africa’s economic growth.
Even in the most optimistic scenario, McKinsey project that Africa’s GDP growth would be cut to just 0.4 percent in 2020 – and this scenario is looking less and less likely by the day. In all other scenarios, McKinsey project that Africa will experience an economic contraction in 2020, with its GDP growth rate falling by between five and eight percentage points. The first scenario is set as ‘contained global and Africa outbreak.’ In this least-worst case, Africa’s average GDP growth in 2020 would be cut from 3.9 percent (the forecast prior to the crisis) to 0.4 percent. This scenario assumes that Asia experiences a continued recovery from the pandemic, and a gradual economic restart. In Africa, McKinsey assumes that most countries experience isolated cases or small cluster outbreaks – but with carefully managed restrictions and a strong response, there is no widespread outbreak. And the worst case scenario is ‘Resurgent global outbreak, Africa widespread.’ In this case, Africa’s average GDP growth in 2020 would be cut by about eight percentage points, resulting in a negative growth rate of -3.9 percent. Globally, McKinsey assumes that Europe and the United States continue to face significant outbreaks as China and East Asian countries face a surge of re-infection. In addition, significant outbreaks occur in most major African economies, leading to a serious economic downturn.
The report recommended that governments, the private sector and development institutions need to double down on their already proven resolve and significantly expand existing efforts to safeguard economies and livelihoods across Africa.
The report further suggests as a framework for near term action by governments, the private sector, and development institutions to mitigate this impact. These actions are drawn from a global scan of economic interventions already being implemented or considered, and recent discussions with public- and private-sector leaders across Africa.
However the report suggests that in many countries, there is an opportunity to take bolder, more creative steps to secure supply chains of essential products, contain the health crisis, maintain the stability of financial systems, help businesses survive, and support households’ economic welfare.
So decision makers should intended with data and tools to inform and strengthen their response in order to make the most of the limited time and resources available.
According to the Africa development bank outlook before the outbreak and spread of the pandemic the real GDP growth, estimates at 3.4 percent for 2019, is projected to accelerate to 3.9 percent in 2020 and to 4.1 percent in 2021.
However, to make Africa’s growth more inclusive, countries need to deepen structural reforms to diversify their productive base, build resilience to extreme weather events by adopting climate-smart agricultural techniques and providing risk-sharing platforms for households, create more fiscal space to expand social safety nets and increase the efficiency of existing programs, and remove obstacles to the movement of workers to more productive opportunities within and across countries.
In a related development, the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia – in regards to the airline industry and allied businesses – could cost the country some USD 1.2 billion in GDP and affect more than 323,000 jobs, a global airline body disclosed.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) highlighted the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africa and Middle East. IATA strengthened its call for urgent action from governments in Africa and the Middle East to provide financial relief to airlines as the association’s latest scenario for potential revenue loss by carriers in Africa and the Middle East reached USD 23 billion (19 billion in the Middle East and four billion in Africa). This translates into a drop of industry revenues of 32 percent for Africa and 39 percent for the Middle East for 2020 as compared to 2019.
IATA revealed that Ethiopia will have 1.6 million fewer passengers resulting in a USD 0.3 billion revenue loss, risking 327,062 jobs and USD 1.2 billion in contribution to Ethiopia’s economy. In 2017 the country’s passenger journey was 7.3 million.
ECA contributes awareness materials to aid Ethiopia’s fight againstCOVID-19
The Economic Commission for Africa and the UN Communications Group last week handed over to the Government of Ethiopia, awareness materials to ensure ordinary citizens have access to timely and accurate information in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.
Over 40000 flyers and brochures were printed for distribution by relevant government entities.
Topics include emergency preparedness and response, the disease and its conditions, healthy living and safety, among others.
“We are honoured to partner with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and the Ministry of Transport during this time of crisis,” said Ali Todaro, Chief of Conference Management Section at the ECA.
“The UN is working around the world to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. We recognize that a positive outcome is only possible if the ordinary person is fully informed.”
Charles Ndungu, Chief of ECA’s Printing and Publishing Unit, added his voice, saying, “Every time one places a call in Ethiopia, they get an educational message about coronavirus prevention. But we all know that is not enough because not everyone has a cell phone. The ECA is happy to be playing its small part in this massive fight against the deadly virus that is set change our world as we know it, if we do not act fast.”
