![A deserted St Peters Square in Manchester City Centre](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/page_header_half/public/2021-09/lockdown%20st%20peters%20ed.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=p7RJ9C8n)
Lockdown Life
The North West Film Archive is asking for YOUR help in creating the region’s moving image record of what life was really like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Project
In March 2020, life in the North West changed overnight. The arrival of COVID-19 in the region saw the indefinite closure of workplaces and businesses and brought lockdowns, social distancing, the ‘clap for carers’, online quizzes and home schooling into our lives.
The North West Film Archive set about trying to locate and preserve people’s moving image footage of these unprecedented and worrying times, and so launched the #lockdownlife project – an appeal for digital video footage reflecting local people’s experiences of a global pandemic.
From empty city centre streets and supermarket shelves, to home-made music videos and the ‘Superheroes of Sale’, we had a fantastic response to the initial appeal, with over 20 collections of video files passed over to the Archive for preservation.
The Search Continues
But we still need YOUR help – if you have any video of life at home or work from this time, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re especially interested in the experiences of key workers, and in footage depicting the later stages of lockdown – holidays at home, Christmas and New Year celebrations, or simply your daily routines.
How to send videos
It’s easy to send your lockdown life files to the North West Film Archive - you can send them straight to us here, or via a file transfer service such as WeTransfer or Dropbox to n.w.filmarchive@mmu.ac.uk. Once we’ve got your files, one of our team will be in touch.
Get in touch
![Receiving film from a member of the public at Manchester Central Library](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/16_9_two_column/public/2021-10/Deposit1.jpg?h=623e5f21&itok=rW4hFRN2)