The film, set to the uplifting words of Brother Richard Hendrick’s poem ‘Lockdown’, shines a light on the stories of hope, unity and resilience that a virtual community ranging from the Philippines to Kenya, Italy and El Salvador were moved to share in response to the anxiety felt by many during this time of uncertainty.
In just ten days, perfect strangers became a community to deliver the ground-breaking project, united in their goal to share the beauty that can be found in life under lockdown. Ruptly contributed news and archive footage to set the scene that began their story. Global submissions were then edited together at Muse Storytelling’s Oregon headquarters, with the end result of a four-minute film, and a viral movement, #ChooseHopeStory, inviting the rest of the world to add their voices.
Dinara Toktosunova, CEO of Ruptly, said of the project: “We’re proud to have collaborated in an initiative that’s helping spread light in these seemingly dark times. Celebrating the power of film to unite and inform, this project shows the value of bringing together honest human stories to unify a global audience. This is just the tonic that the industry, and the wider world, needs.”
Patrick Moreau, Founder of Muse Storytelling, added: "We became storytellers so that we could connect people, create an impact. We were feeling helpless so we decided to take action, bring together our global community of storytellers and create something that would help people connect".
The full video is available online and to broadcasters and digital publishers via Ruptly’s distribution platform. Enquires can be directed to cd@ruptly.tv.