Filmmaker Natalya Murakhver has recently released her new documentary “15 Days: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures.” It shows the devastating effects that remote learning had on children and families. What was the true impact of the school closures on a generation of children? How can we begin to measure it? “Viewers will bear witness to the stories of the people who experienced the closures directly. The film was shot almost immediately following the closures. We started in 2022, so the pain was still extremely raw,” Murakhver says. “I felt [that] we better get those stories in now, because people won’t want to talk about them in a couple of years. ... As we show the film, I see people’s body language, and they shudder. It takes them back to a very dark time.” Murakhver co-founded parent advocacy organization Restore Childhood in 2021 and played a leading role in mobilizing New York City parents to reopen public schools during the pandemic. In the spring of 2021, she filed a lawsuit against New York City and its Department of Education, seeking a judicial order to fully reopen public schools for five days a week of in-person learning. “People watch the film … and they realize how important it is to know the history,” she says. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
