Crocheting salves the wounds and worries of pandemic

CBC Manitoba's Creator Networkasked local artists to imagine their happy place as we mark the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Winnipeg filmmakers Samantha Don and Alexancer Decebal-Cuzatook up the challenge. They created Mend, a short film starring Don, which follows her obsession with crocheting.To see more Happy Place projects from the Creator Network click here.

When the lockdown started taking its toll, I took up crocheting, and now I can't really put it down.

Crocheting then turned to painting, and painting to sculpting. Creating art is my happy place.

I used all of my anxious energy and channeled it into different creative projects.

I think this helps me take my mind off of everything going on in the world around me, and I can focus on creating positivity in a space where I have control.

Plus, when everything has gone back to normal,I'll have a bunch of colourful clothes to wear.

About the filmmakers

Samantha Don is a Winnipeg-based filmmaker and editor. She is a Red River College Creative Communicationsgraduate, and is working on completing her Bachelorof Film at the University of Winnipeg. She wants tocreate content about social justice movements and uses film as a way of showcasing voices in the community. Being different is something that is very important to her, and she fully embraces the weird in every project she works on.

Alexander Decebal-Cuzais a filmmaker based in Winnipeg. Decebal-Cuzahasworked as acamera assistant and director of photography. Starting off with portraiture and photojournalism, he quickly found a passion in visual storytelling and started to explore the film industry. When heisn't making films, Decebal-Cuza is working as the photo editor for The Manitoban newspaper.