The much-anticipated sequel film ‘Young in Covid II: Routes to Recovery’ – a documentary highlighting the challenging experiences of Bradford’s young people during the Covid-19 pandemic – was launched at a premier at Bradford University on Monday, 20 March.
This second film follows in the footsteps of the first multi-award-winning documentary, ‘Young in Covid: The Silent Pandemic.’ Approaching the third anniversary of the lockdown, the new film reacquaints us with the young stars from the original film and gives an honest and emotive account of how lockdowns and COVID have impacted their lives since.
A key theme within the new film, and in the speeches on the launch night, was the importance of faith – especially the role of faith as a coping strategy within the pandemic. Sarah Muckle director of public health in Bradford, said “late last year, Chris Witty came to visit us, he came to some of the schools. And we had lots of conversations about the role of faith in improving health and wellbeing. He was so taken by that.”
“Because we are a diverse city, there are lot of difference faiths. And one of the things he said was he would really like [after he is no longer busy with covid] to come back and talk to Bradford about the role of faith in health and wellbeing and maybe look at how we capitalize on that as a way of people being more resilient and help cope with some challenges.”
Jassa, one of the film’s contributors who is now studying music at the University of Huddersfield, took to the stage and performed a powerful spoken word poem delivered in a rap style performance full of raw, unfiltered emotions. Detailing his anger about the Coronavirus pandemic, dissatisfaction how it was handled by authorities, and fury at the way covid robbed young people of precious time during the most crucial stages of their life.
“This city is comfortable with faith in a way that very few cities in the entire country are. We are leading the way.” Bishop Toby Howarth
In the film, Jassa spoke passionately about the many ways in which COVID actually brought him closer to God. One of the most moving parts of the film saw Jassa speaking passionately about how he finds deep breathing now aligns him closely with his faith, having had a realisation during the pandemic that lungs had become such an important theme for him during covid: the imagery that it resonates with George Floyd and protestors chanting ‘I can’t breathe’ as well as Covid literally affecting people’s lungs. He now associates all of that with that time; and expresses this in the film in thoughtful creative ways.
At the premier, Bishop Toby Howarth said “This city is comfortable with faith in a way that very few cities in the entire country are. We are leading the way.” Speaking about the film he said “you guys were talking about faith in a way that was empowering for one another. Not in a ‘my faith is better than your faith’ kind of way. I’m just so proud.”
The film was shot by Bradford filmmaker Pishdaad Modaressi Chahardehi and features stories from Marium Zumeer, Numan, Trisha, Harry, Anjali, Maverick, Jorge, Nikodi, Matthew, Umaimah and Hasnain.
Partners included in its production were: University of Bradford, Khidmat Centres, West Yorkshire Police, Dixon Trinity Academy, Millside Centre, Rooted In, Anarchy Cinema.
This article was updated on 22 March 2023
