In the Same Breath | |
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Directed by | Nanfu Wang |
Produced by |
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Cinematography |
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Edited by | Michael Shade Nanfu Wang |
Music by | Nathan Halpern |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | HBO |
Release dates |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
In the Same Breath is a 2021 documentary film directed and produced by Nanfu Wang. It follows how the Chinese and American governments reacted to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2021. It was released in a limited release on August 12, 2021, by HBO Documentary Films prior to its broadcast on HBO on August 18, 2021.
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The film follows the response of the Chinese and American governments to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Nanfu Wang was still working on another project, she set out to make a short film about the Chinese government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving her son with her mother. But as COVID-19 spread, Wang became worried and started looking for more information during her stay in China, she found that much of it was censored or false propaganda disseminated by the Chinese government. She began contacting cinematographers in Wuhan, China and soon realized that the stories about the pandemic were too important to be in a short film. She started incorporating the American response to the pandemic after seeing some U.S. health officials share misinformation about it. [1] HBO Documentary Films came on board to produce and distribute the film. [2]
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2021. [3] [4] It also screened at South by Southwest in March 2021. [5] It was released in a limited release on August 12, 2021, prior to its broadcast on HBO on August 18, 2021. [6] [7]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on reviews from 50 critics, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Gripping and clear-eyed, In the Same Breath captures history as it's being written -- and governmental failures as they amplify worldwide tragedy." [8]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
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Cinema Eye Honors | March 1, 2022 | Outstanding Direction | Nanfu Wang | Nominated | [9] [10] |
Outstanding Production | Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, and Carolyn Hepburn | Nominated | |||
Outstanding Broadcast Film | In the Same Breath | Won | |||
IDA Documentary Awards | March 4, 2022 | Best Feature | Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, and Carolyn Hepburn | Nominated | [11] [12] |
Independent Spirit Awards | March 6, 2022 | Best Documentary Feature | In the Same Breath | Nominated | [13] |
Producers Guild of America Awards | March 19, 2022 | Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures | Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, and Carolyn Hepburn | Nominated | [14] |
Peabody Awards | June 6–9, 2022 | Documentary | In the Same Breath | Won | [15] |
Nanfu Wang is a Chinese-born American filmmaker. Her debut film Hooligan Sparrow premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2017. Her second film, I Am Another You, premiered at SXSW Film Festival in 2017 and won two special jury awards, and her third film, One Child Nation, won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Wang is the recipient of a 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking, from the Vilcek Foundation.
The 2019 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 24 to February 3, 2019. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 28, 2018.
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