Hot Docs 2021: Wuhan Wuhan
hot docs 2021Continuing the steady stream of COVID-19 documentaries to come out over the past few months, Wuhan Wuhan, which is streaming as part of the 2021 Hot Docs Film Festival, attempts to bring a sense of humanity to the early outbreak in Wuhan. Interlacing brutal footage showing the raw tragedy experienced during the initial outbreak and lockdown within Wuhan with the perspective of a young couple who are nearing the birth of their first child, Wuhan Wuhan gives a well-rounded and impactful look at this time of uncertainty and fear.
Similar to previous projects such as 76 Days, Wuhan Wuhan will hit audiences in the gut with the raw capturing of emotions and devastation that was felt in the early days of the pandemic. Specifically with the more humanistic approach that Wuhan Wuhan takes with its storytelling and focus, it is impossible not to sympathise with the individuals going through this fearing for the lives of both the community and themselves. The result is a feature painful and raw in the best of ways.
Unlike a project like 76 Days, however, Wuhan Wuhan isn't a film that defines itself with this pain and loss. Inside Wuhan Wuhan there is a sense of humanity and hope that will challenge some viewers and the perceptions of the lockdown era. Using the perspective of the young couple who is about to have a child, the film shows that life continues even in the direct face of tragedy. Wuhan Wuhan spends time in the storm but also gives space to the sunlight of the next morning, showing that no matter how bad things get, humanity will find a way to push forward.
This is not the most common take for a piece of COVID cinema and speaks to one of the issues of the film which simply is the time it is releasing in. As lockdowns are starting to crawl to a seeming end, Wuhan Wuhan unfortunately finds itself in an incredibly bad situation. The horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic have already been caught in stunning detail on the big screen and also feels rather unwanted at this stage of life where, for many, lockdowns have been a fact of life for over a year and most are ready to move on. The hope for a more positive tomorrow is more relevant but also is being felt on a global scale much more powerfully than what this film could provide. If Wuhan Wuhan wasn't going to release in the thick of things last fall alongside the other batch of early COVID projects, it clearly should have waited for more space between the events and the film's release to allow audiences to be in a better place for the nuances found within the feature.
Still, Wuhan Wuhan feels like a worthy addition to the COVID-19 documentary genre and serves a unique purpose even when compared to the other films capturing the same event. Even if the feature could have used a better time of release, it is hard not to connect to the emotions and humanity at the center of the film.
