Living Warriors: COVID
Online, Spring/Summer 2021
A Living Words Project
The Book
In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Living Words has been working with individuals and groups whose lives have been impacted by contracting Covid-19. Of those involved, individuals have experience of Long Covid, hospitalisation, and coma. As a result individuals have experienced job loss, isolation, disability, and relationship changes. The fight continues, as all take the necessary steps each day, supporting mental and physical health, moving forward in this changed world.
Our Living Warriors: Covid include a teacher, a nurse, a social worker, parents, grandparents, a student, and a filmmaker. They want to share their words and stories to give strength and hope to themselves and others.
In the words of Georgia Gwynne, one of the Living Warriors: “We’ve all been on our own in the choppy sea with Covid. This book, we hope, is a lighthouse. Us Living Warriors are now in the lighthouse together, and we are sending our light out to you. There is hope, we are not alone. There are people who know what this feels like, and there are many of us, all across the country, across the world even.”
All of the Living Warriors have co-created books of their own words about their experiences, and together have had their words published in a book, funded by NHS Kent & Medway.
To order a copy, please email: info@livingwords.org.uk
The Film
Living Warriors: Covid are a group of people from across Kent who have had and are overcoming the long-term effects of Covid-19. One of these Living Warriors, Oliver Pratt, an Illustration & Animation graduate, has created a short film based around his experience of being hospitalised and brought to the brink of death due to contracting the virus. The text for Oliver's film is the words he spoke during the project, using our 'Listen Out Loud' method. Along with the 8 other Living Warriors, Oliver told his story of survival and living beyond Covid-19. Together they published a book of their experiences.
‘Intensive’ is based around Oliver’s experience of contracting Covid-19, and later developing Kawasaki Syndrome, causing the otherwise fit and healthy twenty-one-year old’s organs to shut down, rendering him comatose and near the brink of death in St Thomas’ Hospital. His dreamlike recollections are humorous, harrowing, and yet often life-affirming.
From 1027 submissions, and from 110 countries, Oliver's film has been selected as the winner by participating WHO staff from all over the globe. With the likes of Sharon Stone, Emilia Clarke, Mia Maestro, and others on the jury panel, the awards ceremony is taking place live from Geneva.
The animation has been shared locally, nationally, and internationally; locally - within 4 festivals and at a special premiere screening at SPACE Bar & Gallery in September 2021; nationally and internationally - the film went on to be featured as the leading story for BBC Ideas coverage of International Day of Persons with Disabilities (300,000 + complete views on socials/across digital means), and also on to win the World Health Organisation ‘Health for All’ Film Fest Grand Prix (WHO Facebook 38m followers) for the category ‘Health Emergencies’. From 1027 submissions, and from 110 countries, Oliver's film was selected as the winner by participating WHO staff from all over the globe. With the likes of Sharon Stone, Emilia Clarke, Mia Maestro, and others on the jury panel, the awards ceremony took place live from Geneva earlier this year.
From this win, the film was screened at the British Library for the International MED fest, where Oliver and Susanna (artistic director/founder of Living Words) were interviewed by Dame Carol Black.
From this work, Living Words have now been directly commissioned in 2022 for a documentary regarding Living Warriors: Flux LGBTQIA+ & self-harm, by the BBC.
The second now finished animation shown on our Home Screening page, has also come out of our Living Warriors: Covid project. ‘Many Talking’ brings together the voices & words of all project participants into a visual montage.
