SYNOPSIS

After years of volunteering at women’s shelters, 16-year-old filmmaker Elise Siregar Chen began to question the underlying systemic identity biases preventing women from achieving security and independence. In her documentary The Zoom Call, Elise strives to further understand the machinations limiting certain people from marginalized communities by interviewing a diverse panel of young people (ages 13 – 22) from a host of countries including the United States, Indonesia, Spain, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Mexico, Colombia, India, Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong. Elise asks pointed questions of her interviewees addressing issues including discrimination, socio-economic inequalities, and racism. Digging into the similarities and differences across their different cultures and communities, Elise learns institutional oppression is not a malady unique to the United States. Against the backdrop of Covid-19, the interviewees confess their fears for the future: fears that are equal parts for themselves (completing their educations, finding viable employment opportunities, maintaining their mental health) and for society as a whole (mitigating socio-economic inequities, avoiding another Covid peak, addressing police brutality and corruption). Ultimately, it is the hope and the optimism of these young people, their passion and resilience, that encapsulates the message of the documentary The Zoom Call.