A retrospective: navigating and representing the lockdown in Jason Farries’ Homesick

This interview attends to an earlier period in the COVID-19 pandemic. I discuss, with actor-director Jason Farries, the experience of making a film during the pandemic, what he hopes to say about it with Homesick (2021), and how it forms part of an emerging genre. Homesick follows the experiences of The Student (Farries), who is living in isolation and who has tested positive for COVID-19. Things do not improve for The Student as he loses power and as he becomes more disconnected than ever from his loved ones and from the wider world. Farries' earlier work includes an adaptation of J. B. Priestley's classic An Inspector Calls (1945), which is now available on YouTube, and which, at the time of writing, has been viewed more than 2.3 million times. Much has changed and much continues to change during the ongoing pandemic. The following interview contributes to research on creative industries by revealing the affordances and challenges of filming during its early days; by showing how Farries, through his project, compiles a range of different responses to and develops his own position on the lockdown; and finally, by providing some ways for reading its ending.