38 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL, 22, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens Theatre to premiere new film spotlighting Queens’
stories of fear, resilience and hope amid COVID-19 pandemic
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
CMOHAMEDSCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
QNS
Queens Th eatre on Th ursday, April 22,
will spotlight stories of resilience and hope
amid the COVID-19 pandemic with a new
fi lm, “I See You and You See Me,” based on
oral history and source material from the
Queens Memory Project, a community
archiving program that aims to record and
preserve contemporary history across the
borough.
Th e fi lm, a Madison Square Films production,
was written, adapted and directed
by Harris Doran and produced by Queens
Th eatre’s Dominic D’Andrea. It features 11
actors presenting the accounts of Queens
residents who shared their stories about
their lives last year with the Queens Memory
Project at the Queens Public Library.
“We are inviting the community to look
back at the beginning and remember this
time of deep uncertainty, where people were
trying to navigate this new reality and letting
the weight of it sink in,” said D’Andrea, the
fi lm’s producer and director of community
engagement at Queens Th eatre. “Everyone
had a diff erent way of doing that and was
trying to fi gure out how to deal with this
moment and how to take care of
themselves.”
Accord ing to
D’Andrea, at the time
of the fi lm’s conception,
Queens was the “epicenter
of the epicenter”
of the global health
crisis that impacted the
borough. Together, the
Queens Memory Project
and Queens Theatre
sought a responsibility
to document
the events
unfolding,
resulting
in creating
a love letter
to the
Q u e e n s
c ommu -
nity.
“ T h i s
project was
c r e a t e d
from the
stories of
Q u e e n s
community members, with Queens artists,
in Queens, during the height of the
pandemic,” D’Andrea said. “While we were
all experiencing this trauma together, we
found beauty and laughter and existential
questions and our humanity underneath.
Th is fi lm celebrates all of that. Th is fi lm is
Queens.”
Doran had spent a lot
of time reading and
sorting through the
archives of the
Queens Memory
Project searching
for stories
that told
a unique
perspective, he said.
The duo had also encouraged
community
members
to subm
i t
their stories to the archive.
“I wanted to make sure this film
ref lected a diversity of gender, race,
sexuality and then perspectives — from
mental health and the way people cope,”
said Doran, the fi lm’s writer and director.
“We wanted to gather stories that were
whole, extreme and unique.”
At turns sad, frustrating, angry,
humorous and even
hopeful, the
stories illustrate the emotional
and psychological impact of
the events of 2020. As the fi lm
opens up, it takes viewers
back to when New York City
had shut down due to the
virus in March 2020,
where “the stories
of Queens
were silenced,
but
the voices
of Queens
still called
out to be
heard.”
T h e
vast array
of stories
sheds light
on people
f o c u s i n g
on thei r
health, food,
family, dating
and fi nding humor in the situation, according
to Doran and D’Andrea, who
characterized the stories as personal inner
experiences that people were facing during
quarantine.
Under extreme circumstances, Doran
was able to create a cohesive fi lm, according
to D’Andrea, that included a mix of remote
Zoom fi lming and socially distanced
in-person fi lming inside Queens Th eatre,
lending itself to a COVID-time aesthetic.
As the producer of the project, D’Andrea
had to work remotely, making phone calls
to check in.
“We had to do it all remote in that way,
but I still tried to create an environment
that still felt as artistically real as being
there in person — treating the material
with the same weights and treating the actors
with the respect for how we are going
to approach this craft and not in any way
letting up on that,” Doran said.
For James Seol, an actor who stars in
the movie, fi lming at Queens Th eatre was
an opportunity to be creative again while
he was grappling with a lot of uncertainty
amid the pandemic. Seol portrays a hopeful
and optimistic character named Sto Len
who is trying to fi gure out everything that
is happening in the world.
“It’s interesting to see how art collides
with the things that are happening in our
world and to have a record of personal,
individual, unique experiences,” Seol
said. “I hope the film inspires people to
reflect on everything that has happened
in the last year and maybe start to inspire
and serve as a catalyst for questions
they may have.”
A year later, as vaccinations continue
to roll out and people look toward the
future post-pandemic, D’Andrea and
Doran said the film is a piece of art tied
to a time in place that will ultimately be
remembered as an important project.
“We will always have this moment
where the world had to stop, especially in
Queens, where we were most impacted and
restricted,” D’Andrea said. “It was a very
diff erent experience because everything was
that much more heightened. We were the
COVID narrative, and I think that’s worth
remembering.”
Queens Theatre will debut the film
on YouTube on Thursday, April 22 at
7 p.m. ET. To learn more and RSVP to
see the film for free, visit queenstheatre.
org/event/coming-soon-i-see-youand
you-see-me/.
QNS fi le photo
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Courtesy of Queens Theatre
Dominic Antonio D’Andrea is the director
of community engagement at Queens
Theatre and has produced digital content
since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Courtesy of Queens Theatre
Harris Doran is a NYC-based writer/director.
2022
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