Local Legends of COVID-19: The Two-Headed Dragon by Jayme Joyce

Local Legends of COVID-19 is the first volume of an anthology series of short documentary films about various individuals who have worked in the relief efforts of “essential” organizations during the pandemic in Chicago.

Each film is an up close and personal experience with real people doing extraordinary things despite incredible challenges, using verite documentary footage to connect us to that person in an authentic, emotionally vulnerable way. The central theme of COVID-19 is sometimes all that connects each of the characters to show multiple perspectives of the same issue, so that watching the complete season leaves the viewer feeling as though they have experienced a restorative justice peace circle.

The Local Legends series is a documentary homage to the oral tradition of collected folktales. Each season of the show is like a different volume. Each volume is an anthology of diverse stories centered around a common theme. The first collection and common theme is COVID-19. The footage includes coverage of relief efforts amidst the pandemic captured and crafted not only by me, but also by filmmakers who were born and raised in the communities depicted in these films. Our Goals are to: Demonstrate: Grit & Joy. Celebrate: Strength & Beauty. Facilitate: Urgency & Tenderness. Promote: Empathy & Truth.

Jayme Joyce is an award-winning entrepreneur and founder of social enterprise company Local Legend Films, a documentary film company committed to restorative justice storytelling that employs young people at risk from gun violence as filmmakers in a trauma-informed collective workplace. Previously, Jayme has worked in various capacities on dozens of films, most notably as a camera operator for the Oscar-nominated documentary Finding Vivian Maier. In addition, she was the second unit assistant director on the critically acclaimed documentary film Girl Rising. Additionally, Jayme has juried the Chicago International Film Festival, worked for seven years at the Sundance Film Festival, and served on the board of the Chicago chapter of Women in Film for four years.