Historical Society, Student Filmmakers Make Pandemic Documentary

MADISON, CT —The Madison Historical Society has produced a powerful 30-minute video documentary about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the lives of Madison residents, families, students, businesses, and civic, elected and religious leaders.

Together with local student filmmakers Garrett Samodel and Connor Wilke of Ciné Verité Productions, the film looks at life during the winter of 2020 COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

"Documentary films are a powerful medium that often provide windows into the real-life achievements and struggles of ordinary people in extraordinary times," the historical society explains.

Called "Turning the Tide," the film captures the personal stories of Madison people from various walks of life. The film explores the challenges of religious leaders ministering to congregants in isolation; the collaborations of the faculty and staff of Daniel Hand High School to develop distance learning programs while ensuring that students continued to receive basic resources; the reflections of a COVID-19 survivor detailing his dark days in ICU at Yale-New Haven Hospital; and the poignant hopes and fears of graduating high school students.

"At the Madison Historical Society, our mission to document the lived experience of our community encouraged us to take a leading role in capturing this history as it happened," it explains. "Through this short documentary film, we hope to convey how the pandemic changed our lives and how one shoreline town responded to the health and economic crisis faced by people everywhere."