London based Director & Photographer Daisy Gaston has made this experimental doc over the course of one year of lockdown in East London. True, raw stories and musings from East London build this piece into a poetic tribute touching on dozens of people's thoughts and experiences, from health care workers to students.

Gaston 'Having grown up in London, it's the place I call home, a place that I know so well. When the pandemic hit, it was so strange to see the streets I'd walked on so many times change overnight; the hustle and bustle, the lively market stalls and the constant traffic disappear. My inspiration to begin this piece stemmed from this feeling of change however quickly became a recorded note, almost like a diary of people's experiences of this time. From the beginning of the project I knew I wanted to shoot the entire piece on 16mm. My reasoning was partly because I love the aesthetic of film, yet more so, because of the nostalgic feeling the footage would evoke. Knowing that, with time, this unusual period of our lives would be only a memory.

I worked in a small film crew, myself and the DoP Joyce Nicholls. Working in a duo, we were able to be spontaneous, capturing unique and time-bound moments such as Regents Street deserted and the ordinarily bustling courts of Hackney Downs, empty. Involving my local community and gathering real stories was at the heart of my approach. The aim for this piece wasn't to deeply analyse the crisis, rather a note and respect to the many different experiences and emotions lived in my community.'

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