Homeschooled
On March 16th, 2020, New York City’s public school system, the nation’s largest, faced its most serious challenge in decades: to close its scho0ls to stop the spread of the coronavirus, altering the lives of 1.1 million children, 75,000 teachers, and well over 1 million parents.
This pandemic closure did not affect all students equally; as schools across the city scrambled to move their lesson plans into virtual classrooms, remote learning has left the poor and vulnerable students behind. Students like 11-year-old Sandivel Chavez, a 5th grader at Public School 188, and her brothers had to juggle between having a place to live and keeping up with their school work. Who’s responsible for their education? How will they move up to the next level? How will this pandemic set back this family and thousands of students across the city?
runs live at 5:07 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 12
Q&A with filmmakers to follow
Filmmakers
Juan Arredondo is a Colombian-American documentary photographer who has chronicled human rights and conflict stories in Colombia, Venezuela, and Central America. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic. Since 2014, he has been reporting on the use of child soldiers by illegal armed groups in Colombia, the peace agreement between the Colombian Government and FARC and most recently the demobilization and reintegration of former fighters into the Colombian society, for which he was awarded a World Press Photo award in 2018. He is a 2019 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and currently enrolled in a Master's degree in documentary filmmaking at Columbia University.
Yuntong Man is a multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker from Beijing, China. She earned her M.S. in instructional technology and media from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her M.S. in journalism and documentary from Columbia School of Journalism. She previously worked for the United Nations as a video producer and published videos about environmental protection, counter-terrorism, peacekeeping, and more. She’s also experienced in data visualization, web development, theatre production, and interactive design.
