With large scale productions and adventurous undertakings being off the table this year, the time is ripe for intimate new films. Filmmaker Millefiore Clarkes took the strange time of reflection this year gave us and put together Love in Quarantine, a documentary exploring various aspects of human connection and love within our isolated context. Released last month through the NFB, the film may reflect feelings you’ve dwelled in over these long months.
Using her 2003 documentary Stalking Love as a conceptual springboard, Clarkes states her previous mission statement to ask anyone possible about the topic of love. “And now, life…is different.” She easily and solemnly captures our changed reality with ghostly barren environments and individuals almost solely shown alone. The keystones of the documentary are a teen dealing with gender identity and a woman who remains invariably distanced from her new partner, the spaces between filled with questions and answers about love from Clarkes and those in her life.
The presentation of Love in Quarantine can be best described as a quilt. Visually and sonically the film uses traditional filming techniques of varying quality as well as recorded video chats. It makes for some digital warmth and offers a feeling of change within the static feeling of the world we know too well currently; this is a large boon for a topic that could easily be mentally draining.
While a simple idea to present, the question of “What is love?” is universal in its profundity, and therefore will always have an endless list of responses. The unique and timely angle obviously comes from the constraints around quarantine and how they have affected love, both for the self and others. Clarkes shows us a beautiful melange in the patchwork of Love in Quarantine– seeing a youth finding the courage and insight to express their identity to their friends after dwelling on it for the year gives a sense of hope but watching the emotional drain that border closures place on a woman’s budding love drains one to the soul.
Love in Quarantine is open-ended and thoughtful, displaying the true strain that the past year has placed on lives without leaving us hopeless. Millefiore Clarkes’ exploration of an age-old question doesn’t give a particular answer, and it shouldn’t. It’s the dive into the question of love that makes it worthwhile, and Love in Quarantine reminds us that, despite our changed world, that much remains true.