When Australia, and the world, went into lockdown, news outlets had to change the way they reported. SBS’s award-winning current affairs show The Feed set up a phone line to receive voice memos from all over the country.
Australians responded with hundreds of incredibly intimate stories of hope, fear and resilience as they dealt with a world turned upside down by a once in a lifetime event.
Stories like Daniel Ou Yang, an Australian, who experienced the devastating rise of the virus in Wuhan and was then amongst the first to go into quarantine on Christmas Island. Or Geraldine Buzzo, who waits anxiously for news of her mother – on holiday in Peru and now trapped amidst a nation-wide lockdown. In Sydney, Zeinab Hamade Dib tells of the pain of saying goodbye to her father as quarantine restrictions mean she cannot fulfil his final wish. And Table Tennis champion Michelle Bromley fights to hold onto Olympic dream as the world shuts down country by country.
Each story is a small diary, a missive from a person telling us what gives them hope in the time of COVID-19. For some, it’s extra time with their loved ones, for others it’s the unexpected environmental benefits of a global slow down.
On June 21, these stories and many more come together in a special half hour documentary on SBS and SBS On Demand. Viewers can graze on layered canvas of stories, presented as video, audio and text. Heartfelt and humorous, Story Line serves as a reminder of just how much has changed in 2020 and what’s at stake as we move forward into an uncertain future of living with this virus.
Story Line is produced and presented by The Feedand created by SBS Digital Creative Labs, an award-winning studio committed to creating enduring projects that celebrate diversity and inspire audiences to see the world in a new light.
The documentary will premiere in collaboration with an online hub for the voice memos recorded in the first six months of COVID-19.
