Work on the recently released documentary, entitled Behind the Mask, started in March last year, after Dr Trotman found himself off work due to being immune-compromised.
Frustrated, and looking for a way to contribute, he started documenting the experiences of his colleagues around the world.
"I wanted to focus on telling the medical side of the story, to ensure the sacrifice of my colleagues around the world would not be forgotten," Dr Trotman said.
"We followed a lot of leads and made contact with a lot of people to find our interview subjects, and heard some amazing stories."
From his home in Dunedin, he spoke over Zoom with medicos in Spain, Italy, the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Because they knew they were talking to a medical colleague, the Behind the Mask subjects were incredibly open about their harrowing experiences.
Getting footage inside hospital ICUs for the documentary was a difficult issue.
"Obviously, no-one wanted to take a camera into ICU, but we were lucky that a man in New York was able to take a phone into an emergency department for us," Dr Trotman said.
Dunedin Hospital was supportive, allowing the film-makers to film in half of the new ICU, with staff demonstrating donning PPE for the camera.
Some local GP practices and WellSouth also allowed the film-makers to capture some footage.
"This local help with the filming was extremely helpful — we couldn’t have done it without them," Dr Trotman said.
The film was completed with the use of Sky News footage from Italy, and footage sourced from a specialist website.
The most difficult task of creating the Behind the Mask documentary was editing more than 100 hours of interview footage to create a 90-minute film, Dr Trotman said.
Behind the Mask has two major narrative arcs — the first outbreaks of the virus and its progression to become a pandemic; and improving treatments to help people recover, and the rollout of vaccines.
The film concludes with a look at the "big picture" and an examination of the way forward into living with the disease in the future.
"So far, everyone who participated and has seen the film is happy with it. I’m getting good feedback," Dr Trotman said.
"Now, I just want to make sure that people know it’s out there and can access it."
- To view the film, for a small charge, visit https://vimeo.com/ondemand/behindthemaskfilm
- brenda.harwood@thestar.co.nz
