Life In Coronavirus Lockdown: Stage 4 Restrictions

COVID-19 cases in Australia (Source: The Age)

 

As cases continued to rise in Victoria, metropolitan Melbourne ended up going into Stage 4 lockdown on 2 August 2020 for six weeks. These restrictions meant that a curfew was put into place from 8pm - 5am, and you needed to stay within a 5km radius of your home when shopping for essentials or exercising outside for one hour per day (allowed with one other person). All but the most essential services and retailers were closed, and you had to have a worker permit from your employer if you couldn't work from home. Schools throughout the state went back to remote learning and the rest of Victoria went into Stage 3 restrictions (including mandatory face masks/coverings).

 

Thankfully the restrictions have been working, and the second wave is trending downward. Over the last few days Victoria has started to get under 100 new cases per day, the lowest numbers since early July. As of today there have been 25,746 cases and 652 deaths due to COVID-19 in Australia, with the vast majority of recent cases occurring in Victoria in the health and aged care sectors. Borders between states and territories remain closed, and while Queensland and New South Wales have had some small outbreaks, they have been able to contract trace and keep clusters under control.

For me Stage 4 hasn't changed things too much since I was already mainly staying at home except to go grocery shopping once a week. I have accumulated an assortment of reusable cloth face masks to wear for when I head outside. At work I am currently contributing to the COVID-19 effort for the next few weeks by working on school closures and reopenings in a jobshare arrangement where I am on from Wednesday - Saturday and have Sunday - Tuesday off. I've also been focused on the wildfires back home in the Bay Area as my cousin is current evacuated from her home (whieh thankfully is still standing) and my brother was on an evacuation warning before that fire became under control.

As things improve in Victoria attention is turning to the easing of restrictions and how we will begin to reopen. Premier Dan Andrews has flagged that he will be making announcements about a roadmap out of restrictions on Sunday, 6 September. The new case numbers and levels of community transmission this week will determine if Stage 4 restrictions will extend beyond 13 September. It's good that there is some light at the end of the tunnel as we head into spring and may be able to get out and see people again.

MIFF 68 1/2

Normally at this time of year I would be racing between cinemas to line up for my next movie as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). However, this year's physical festival was cancelled once the coronavirus pandemic hit. With Melbourne currently in Stage 4 lockdown, MIFF thankfully has gone online as MIFF 68 1/2 and is available for streaming across Australia. Since there weren't any mini passes available this year, I was good and only purchased six films to watch instead of my usual 10 plus.

I started with the Opening Night film First Cow by Kelly Reichardt, which is based on the Jonathan Raymond novel The Half Life. Set in the Oregon Territory in the 1820s, the movie is about the unlikely friendship between Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) as they enter business together selling oily cakes at the market with the secret ingredient of cow milk they've stolen from wealthy Englishman Chief Factor. The tension of the film is will they eventually be found out?

My usual preference of film genre at MIFF is documentaries, and this year was no exception. The Go-Go's told the story of one of the greatest all female bands as they emerged from the LA punk scene in the late 1970s to international stardom. It contained archival footage of them performing, photos and interviews with all of the band members as they detailed the trials and tribulations of the band's history. Martin Margiela: In His Own Words featured the avant-garde Belgian fashion designer speaking for the first time about the inspirations for his key fashion collections throughout his career. Margiela shunned fame and publicity in order to let his clothes be the focus (and he still doesn't show his face in this film).

My other three films were part of the Social Justice 3 Pack bundle. 9to5: The Story of a Movement detailed the women who came together and organised female office workers in the 1970s and 80s into a huge movement for better pay, professional recognition and ultimately as a union. These office women's stories were the inspiration for the movie 9 to 5, and unfortunately the struggle of underpaid primarily female workforces continues to this day. My favorite film of all the ones I watched was Coded Bias, which explored the research done by some female academics into the racial and gender biases that are written into the coding for AI and algorithms used by the main tech companies. It's an incredibly important film that shows the real life impacts of this so-called "impartial" technology on society. 

 

My final film was Hong Kong Moments, which documented key dates in the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as told from seven citizens from all walks of life on both sides of the movement. Filmmaker Zhou Bing allows them all to speak for themselves and the film documents daily life alongside the street battles between police and protestors. It culminated with the local district council elections, which saw a large group of pro-democracy candidates elected.

MIFF 68 1/2 is available for streaming from 6 - 23 August 2020.