“I think there’s a lot of fear of the unknown right now.”
That was one of the reasons why Chris Francis hit record on his camera when his wife Krista tested positive for the coronavirus. Chris later tested positive, too.
“Yeah, we still don’t know who gave it to who,” he said.
Krista thinks it was her because she lost her senses of taste and smell.
“I was just kind of like, ‘Huh. Something’s going on.’ And I was like, ‘Whatever. I’m probably being paranoid,” she recalled.
Chris battled with the urge to grab his camera.
“Do I be a supportive husband and just go along with her or do I stick a camera in her face?”
Local
He never stopped recording after he learned he was infected, too.
“The only way you can make a personal documentary about COVID-19 right now is if you’re a filmmaker that has all the tools and also just happens to get the disease,” Chris said. “And have somebody else living in their house that has it.”
“If the thing is going to threaten our livelihood and our health and our finances,” he said. “I’m at least going to get a video of a doctor jamming a pipe cleaner up my nose out of this.”
“I actually had that thing jammed up my nose three times,” he laughed. “Which we have on film. Five different angles. Any angle you want to see, we got it.”
“As more and more things started progressing, a film started being born out of it," he said.
It’s a documentary called “Making Lemonade: Our COVID-19 Story.” Chris hopes a distributor like Netflix picks up the film.
“It’s all about how we’re making the best of our situation,” he said. “You’ll be able to see, if you get it, this is what it’s going to be like to go through.”
They even produced a game show video as a teaser featuring Krista’s inability to taste anything. She chomps on a raw red bell pepper, an onion, sour cream, a pickle, garlic, and a shot of Jack Daniels.
Every one of Krista’s bites is followed with a curious, “Nope.” She hasn’t been able to taste or smell food for more than a month.
“Emotionally that’s a whole other thing when you can’t taste any of your food,” she said.
Chris said he only got an incredibly stuffy head.
Thankfully, the couple said their symptoms never got any worse.
“It was pretty mild for us,” said Krista. “We never got fever, chills, anything.”
“There’s been a little tension sometimes,” admitted Chris.
The couple admitted they were concerned about the humor in the film.
“Are [people] ready for a story that’s uplifting, that’s inspiring, that’s funny?” asked Chris.
“I feel like people are hungry for a positive spin,” answered Krista. “It’s a good reminder that we don’t have control over most things in life and one of the few things we have control over is our attitude.”
Chris said he’s close to finishing the next draft of the documentary. Viewers can get a glimpse at their work on their Making Lemonade website.
