Movies, books, music, live streams: The culture that got us through 2020
As Covid-19 kept us at home and apart, the power and importance of the arts became more potent than ever before – from addictive TV shows bringing us together to nostalgic sounds serving us a reminder of normality. Here, eight of the year’s brilliant voices share the cultural picks they chose to keep them going through 2020. As told to KATIE BERRINGTON and OLIVE WAKEFIELD
Nathalie Love and Samantha Ressler, co-founders of We The Women
Nathalie: “I temporarily escaped the undoing of my sanity that 2020 has caused by binge-watching The Undoing. I May Destroy You destroyed me. I thought it was a masterpiece. The Vow, of course. Oh, and an older show – but one I loved and was sad there wasn’t more of – is Tig Notaro’s One Mississippi. So moving. Reading Mary Oliver poems and plays, specifically by the brilliant group of playwrights we have been working with this year on a new project… Stacy … Kuffour, Ming Peiffer, Anna Ziegler, Gina Young, Joanna Castle Miller, Jihan Crowther, Tyler English-Beckwith and more. Listening to Patsy Cline and crying. Lots of ’90s nostalgia. Lilith Fair. It’s a very nostalgic time. Lots to reflect on. In a good way.”
Samantha: “My quarantine has been all about plays. Playwright Tyler English-Beckwith wrote a new play called Mingus that I loved. Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage and Sarah Ruhl are three of my favorites: Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, Nottage’s Sweat and Ruhl’s Vibrator Play… start there! I exclusively listen to musical theater and Ella Fitzgerald. Sorry, but that’s my truth. I’m a TV addict and I’ve seen everything, but my favorites are Watchmen, The Queen’s Gambit, The Vow, I’ll Be Gone In the Dark… and I re-watched Dawson’s Creek.”
A production company that focuses on creating original content and championing female-identifying talent in theater, film and television, We The Women are executive producers of the comedy special, ‘Yearly Departed’, which releases on Amazon Prime on December 30
“It’s a very nostalgic time. Lots to reflect on. In a good way
”Nathalie Love
Dominique Fishback, actor, writer and poet
“It’s hard to say what tools got me through 2020, because it feels like one of those years that will linger. I guess the number-one song on my quarantine soundtrack would have to be No Woman, No Cry [The Fugees’ version of the Bob Marley record]. When my aunt passed in September, I was undone. This was the only song that brought me solace… I felt a deep despair, which was juxtaposed with the excitement I felt after the release of Project Power. The lyrics spoke to me – “Little sister, don’t shed no tears…” – they held all the pain, memories, love, loss and the essence of my city in these little words. That morning, I did a 20-minute meditation on grief and let the bath water cradle me for nearly three hours, as I listened to that song on repeat. One book was actually suggested by Daniel [Kaluuya] when I needed it most: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. One of the agreements is to “always do your best”. I remember thinking, OK, I can handle that. You alleviate the pressure when you boil something down to simply trying your best. Additionally, I think the collective soul knew we could all use a bit of comic relief – and then Big Daddy was put on Netflix.”
Fishback’s latest movie, Project Power, is on Netflix now
“You alleviate the pressure when you boil something down to simply trying your best
”Dominique Fishback
Tara Miele, director
“The year 2020 is like a mythical year of a million years. I’ve never been so grateful to artists who could distract us, delight us and deepen our sense of connection. It was D-Nice’s Club Quarantine marking the (end of) days that first made lockdown bearable. My husband and I would pour a glass of wine each and enjoy the happy-hour dance parties on our porch with our daughters. It was a much-needed collective celebration and reminded us all to let it breathe. Months later, we survived a complicated Fourth of July by watching Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton at home (thanks, Disney). Seeing that incredible, diverse cast firing on all cylinders felt like an urgent reminder of the greatness that is possible when talented, tenacious people come together… it felt like hope. Finally, in the fall, I started taking mental-health breaks from the election coverage by binge-watching old episodes of The Carol Burnett Show. There’s something timeless, fundamental and deeply life-affirming in the silliness of that hilarious cast failing to hold it together during their skits. Laughing out loud at Carol Burnett should be requisite therapy during all future quarantines (God forbid we ever have to do this again).”
Miele’s latest film, Wander Darkly, is in select theaters and on-demand platforms now
“Laughing out loud at Carol Burnett should be requisite therapy during all future quarantines
”Tara Miele
Naoise Dolan, author
“The Met Opera’s free nightly livestreams of past productions have been a godsend. Most recently, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor was splendid: Natalie Dessay falling from grace in a blood-stained white dress – what more can one reasonably want? I also thoroughly enjoyed David Fincher’s classic 2007 film Zodiac, which portrays the manhunt for a San Francisco Bay serial killer active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I’m bored by gore and violence but love the psychology and pacing of thrillers, so Fincher’s suspenseful treatment was perfect. To me, it’s most obviously a film about confirmation bias and storytelling – how we process evidence through a filter, how problem-solving incurs all the flukes and biases of creativity. And as an antidote to my evident taste for madness and badness, I’ve been galvanized by Lucille Clifton’s poetry. I have trouble resisting baroque flourishes in my writing, so I admire Clifton’s minimalism. Her mastery of words is obvious from the way the sounds run together, from the way each metaphor holds up to scrutiny, and she never succumbed to overexplaining. She trusted her readers’ intelligence. That’s a wiser move than trusting my own, which leads me to do things like watching 2007 serial-killer movies.”
Dolan’s debut book, Exciting Times, was released earlier this year
“I’m bored by gore and violence but love the psychology and pacing of thrillers
”Naoise Dolan
Cazzie David, writer and actor
“The things I could have done with the time I spent staring at my phone this year are infinite. I could have decided I wanted to get my law degree like Kim Kardashian and studied for the bar exam, and (if I was smart) I would have passed with flying colors, considering the eight hours a day I spent on my phone would have been spent studying instead. Some could even argue that might be too much time spent studying. But the times my screen made me nauseous or I briefly came to my senses, I did everything that everyone else was doing, because we like to do the same things at the same time, especially when we’re going through a pandemic together. The first few weeks of quarantine were dating reality shows, Normal People and Little Fires Everywhere. We exercised in our living rooms to Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. I didn’t bake bread. Or anything else, for that matter. But I ate bread. And everything else, for that matter. At the end of spring and summer, I watched all the viral documentaries, except for Tiger King – I don’t understand how people watched that. Folklore for long drives in July. In fall, along with everyone else, I watched Steve Kornacki, The Queen’s Gambit and The Undoing, which will be very hard for winter to top. All of this meaning, there’s nothing I know about to get me through this time that you don’t. Here’s hoping I learn two languages next time round.”
David’s book, No One Asked for This: Essays, is out now
“At the end of spring and summer, I watched all the viral documentaries, except for Tiger King – I don’t understand how people watched that
”Cazzie David
Frances Cha, author
I loved Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang – it’s original, sharp, introspective and modern. As I was reading it, I was wishing I’d had a friend like the narrator in my life, because I felt she would understand me. And I understood her and was so interested in her. It’s a very literary but relatable book about making choices in love and lifestyle. Then, BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky, Caroline Suh’s documentary for Netflix, which breaks down why Blackpink’s rise has been so meteoric. The footage of how the extremely young members have been practicing performance for 12 hours a day or more, every day for four or five years each, with only a handful of days off a year, and the toll it takes and how they are survivors of the ruthless K-pop system, is brilliantly compelling on film. And, finally, Fantastic Fungi by Louie Schwartzberg. There aren’t that many movies that have actually altered my outlook on life, but this documentary on mushrooms, which took years to complete and is narrated by Brie Larson, did precisely that because of how utterly magical it is. From showing how these alien-like beings come out of nowhere, to how they can clean oil spills and are used in medical treatments (it dwells on the clinical trials that have shown massive success), it is full of wonder.”
Cha’s debut book, If I Had Your Face, was released in the spring
“I loved Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang – it’s original, sharp, introspective and modern
”Frances Cha
Avni Doshi, author
“Culture was all about comfort for me in 2020. Am I the only one who listened to Fiona Apple’s new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, on repeat? Her music felt the right amount of familiar to a girl who came of age in the 1990s, and I was transported to the time I waited in line to see her live at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan. I watched (and rewatched) the new Emma adaptation, because Jane Austen felt as necessary as ice cream right out of the carton. I always suspected Emma was a little bit mean, and I love her all the more for it. Applause for the trifecta that is Autumn de Wilde, Eleanor Catton and Anya Taylor-Joy. In terms of visual art, I moved away from my usual interest in minimalism and found much to admire in the vibrant and mystical paintings of Rithika Merchant. I dare you not to get lost in one of her kaleidoscopic collages.”
Doshi’s debut novel, Burnt Sugar, has been shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize
“I watched (and rewatched) the new Emma adaptation, because Jane Austen felt as necessary as ice cream right out of the carton
”Avni Doshi
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