2025
generation-covid

filmmaking team

Directed by Andrew James and Jennifer Sey
Produced by Jennifer Sey and Laura Fagan
Cinematography by Andrew James and Tanner Shinnick
Edited by Andrew James, Aaron Allsop
Music by Pete Parada

about
the film

An entire generation of children and families were deeply harmed by the response to covid, resulting in half of American public schools being closed for nearly two years. The fallout has been a society-destroying scandal that our elected officials are still too afraid to address. Long past the time when adults resumed normalcy, American school children were onerously restricted, locked out of school and other social and developmental activities, kept alone and isolated and forced onto screens – all in spite of clear data showing covid posed little threat to the young and healthy.

GENERATION-COVID is the story of a forgotten generation who endured the biggest civil rights violations in a century, the largest propaganda campaign in American history and industrial scale censorship in spite of clear, incontrovertible evidence that lockdowns, school closures, vaccine mandates and forced masking were useless and harmful. Politicians and public health officials’ worst authoritarian impulses took hold and the press failed to hold power to account, leaving children voiceless.

Despite clear and incontrovertible real-time evidence of the harms being done, especially to the poor and working class, powerful forces sought to censor, silence and vilify anyone who questioned the efficacy of these unprecedented and unscientific decisions, and our children are still paying the price.

We all are.

the trailer

the directors

Andrew James

Andrew James is the award-winning director of Street Fighting Men, Community Patrol and Cleanflix. His films have screened at festivals such as True/False, Big Sky, IFFBoston, Camden, Traverse City, Brooklyn, Freep, Sidewalk and Toronto. His work has appeared on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Kanopy, Vimeo On Demand, OVID, The Atlantic, Aeon and No Budge. He is an alumni of the Sundance Institute Documentary Program, SFFILM and Film Independent. His freelance work includes Prophet's Prey, Believer, and the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary series Q: Into the Storm.
In addition to film production, Andrew enjoys working with young people. He has taught the Youth Fellowship for the Big Sky Film Institute, the Documentary Storytelling Class at the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and the Documentary Camera Class at Maine Media Workshops. He currently lives in Missoula, Montana where he serves on the the advisory board for the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.
Learn More About Andrew

Jennifer Sey

Jennifer Sey is an American author, filmmaker, business executive and retired artistic gymnast. She was the 1986 USA Gymnastics National Champion, and a 7-time member of the U.S. Women’s National Team. Sey’s first memoir, “Chalked Up" was released in 2008 and detailed the coaching cruelty inflicted on children in the sport of gymnastics. She went on to concept and produce the documentary film, "Athlete A,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won an Emmy in 2020 for Best Investigative Documentary.
Sey began working at Levi Strauss & Co. in 1999, rising to Chief Marketing Officer and then Global Brand President.
Beginning in March 2020, she publicly opposed the closure of San Francisco's public schools. Despite being vilified and suffering tremendous reputational harm, she persisted in protesting school closures and other onerous restrictions to children during covid.
In February 2022, she resigned from Levi's, after 23 years at the company.
She is making the feature length documentary film "Generation Covid” in order to tell the stories of the children and families impacted by the prolonged school closures during covid. And to ensure that it never happens again.