“Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done – that’s courage” Piers Anthony
A New Zealand doctor and film maker is seeking interviewees for the documentary he is making about working on the frontline of Covid-19.
If you are interested in being interviewed please contact Paul at prnfilms@gmail.com
If you would like to support the project financially please go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/drpaultrotman/the-coronavirus-story.
Off from work due to a medical condition and determined that the efforts and sacrifices of his medical and nursing colleagues not be forgotten, Doctor and award winning film maker Dr Paul Trotman of PRN Films has decided to make an international documentary about the Coronavirus pandemic… all without leaving home.
Paul Trotman is both a medical practitioner and a documentary maker, his thing is humanising the practice of medicine and making films where his medical background gains him access or rapport that he wouldn’t otherwise get. He spent a year and a half in his Medical School’s dissection room to make the film ‘Donated to Science’, it has been seen around the world and even won a few awards.
Says Paul “I’m concerned that the lengths to which my colleagues around the world have gone to dramatically alter their practice and the risks they have taken to continue to look after patients under extremely difficult circumstances will too soon be forgotten. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice and have paid with their lives. That especially must not be forgotten.”
The aim is to make a feature documentary telling the story of the Coronavirus outbreak from start to finish, using the words and experiences of the doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in the front line, who have worked under such difficult conditions.
Paul’s background has gained him access to screening facilities, coronavirus wards, Emergency Departments, Covid screening labs and the Intensive Care Unit.
Paul is interviewing colleagues via Zoom and recording the interviews. Because he’s a doctor and colleague Paul’s subjects talk to him differently, they say things and reveal emotions that they would never say or show to a journalist or news reporter, allowing us a privileged view behind the mask.
Paul has spoken to doctors and nurses around the world… retrieval specialists in Perth who rescued patients from isolation in Wuhan, anaesthetists in Spain who converted their operating theatres into intensive care units – in just hours, just qualified doctors in London having life-and-death conversations with families, ICU nurses in New York who’s patients are doubled up in makeshift negative pressure rooms… and all without a single complaint. He has completed interviews that are funny, fascinating, heart-warming and harrowing with colleagues who’s humility means none will accept the label ‘hero’.
This film will be a powerful reminder of what happened in 2020 and an appropriate memorial to fallen colleagues.
Says Paul “I am also working with the Otago Medical School to also analyse people’s responses and build an archive of experiences and to explore my fellow practitioners’ reactions to the pandemic.”
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Much thanks and stay safe.
