A local filmmaker captured history in Miami during the pandemic.
"Quiet Beach" takes you from the beaches of Miami to the inter-city neighborhoods to showcase the business owners, families, and organizations and how they coped through the pandemic.
NBC 6 anchor Sheli Muñiz spoke to Segrin Phillips about the short film.
SHELI: What inspired you?
SEGRIN: Well, I shot this doc during quarantine when it wasn't safe to go outside, and after watching the news day after day, it started to get monotonous. I decided to check the pulse of the city and give the residents a platform to speak their minds from ground zero.
SHELI: You went around different neighborhoods, and you say the pandemic was an equalizer.
SEGRIN: The pandemic is an equalizer because it doesn't matter whether you're rich or you're poor, you live in affluent neighborhoods, or you don't. It equalized everybody the same exact way and it really was a way to bring out some humanity inside of you and confront some things inside of you that had nothing to do with finances and class.
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SHELI: Walk us through the parts where you captured the empty beaches, what was that like?
SEGRIN: So, I love going to the beach like everybody else does in Miami and it was really daunting, it was very apocalyptic to see those beaches, you know, just 'cause a week before, those beaches were really, really packed. To see them clear like that, it was just an eye-opener, it was kind of scary, you know. It was really apocalyptic to see boards on the businesses, and it wasn't as vibrant as they used to be ... it seemed like the end.
While filming the quarantine, the killing of George Floyd happened in Minneapolis. Segren captured the protests and the subsequent calls for racial justice. He also wanted to recognize the Greenhaven Projects, Food Rescue US, and the residents who participated.
Watch "Quiet Beach" here.
