What really happened to our children during the COVID-19 lockdowns - and who was responsible?
In tonight’s YouTube interview, I sit down with New York filmmaker and parent advocate Natalya Murakhver, the producer behind the powerful documentary 15 Days*, which forensically examines the school closures of 2020 and the forces that kept classrooms shut long after the science said they could safely reopen.
Natalya and I first met at the Genspect conference in Portugal in 2024, and we’ve stayed in contact since. The story she has uncovered in 15 Days is something every parent, teacher, and concerned citizen in New Zealand - and around the world - needs to hear. You will find your story in here somewhere, if you were a parent in 2020.
This story needed to be told
15 Days began with a simple but urgent question: if the evidence was clear that schools were safe, why did they stay closed for so long? Natalya, a self-described former progressive New York City Democrat, went looking for answers - and what she found was a web of union collusion, political manipulation, and coordinated propaganda.
“I knew that if we didn’t present the actual story, she [head of American Federation of Teachers] would be rewriting it.” - Natalya Murakhver, on why she made the film
The film reveals how teachers’ unions - particularly the American Federation of Teachers under Randy Weingarten - were not simply representing teachers. They were writing CDC guidance, pressuring the American Academy of Pediatrics to reverse its recommendation to reopen schools, and weaponising fear within communities. All while controlling $4 trillion in pension funds and receiving virtually no challenge from mainstream media.
The agenda hidden inside the lockdowns
What Natalya uncovered goes far deeper than just closed classrooms. When schools did reopen, parents were locked out. In their place came a flood of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) counsellors - hired with $189.5 billion in federal education funds - with no verified credentials, pushing children into climate activism, racial ideology, and collectivist thinking.
As Natalya reveals in the film, the head of the Los Angeles teachers’ union said plainly: “It doesn’t matter if our babies don’t know their times tables. They know the difference between a riot and a coup.” The goal, as Natalya concludes, was never education. It was ideological capture.
Marxist playbook - recognised by those who had seen it before
Born in the Soviet Union, Natalya draws sobering parallels between what she witnessed during COVID and life under totalitarianism - the illusion of consensus, the silencing of dissent, the separation of parent from child. And in our conversation, I share my own experience as a New Zealander grappling with the same psychological warfare.
“They weaponised us against each other - because what they were trying to say was your friend, your family member, could be a ball of something that could kill you. So you then saw each other differently.” - Penny Marie
What parents can do right now
Despite the weight of the subject matter, this conversation ends with hope. Natalya’s message to parents is practical and grounding: be an authoritative presence, bring your family back to the dinner table, protect your children from screen dependency, and build community - one small act at a time. As she says, “small actions are very, very meaningful, because while we can’t make a huge impact at the United Nations, we can make a huge impact in our own home.”
Watch our chat tonight - and share the film
Tune in tonight at 7pm NZ time on the Penny Marie NZ YouTube channel. Drop your thoughts in the comments - I’d love to know what resonates with you, especially as New Zealanders and Australians reflecting on your own lockdown experience.
🎬 15 Days is available to stream on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, and iTunes, and DVDs and screening licences can be purchased at 15daysfilm.com. If you’re a community group, church, school network, or advocacy organisation - this is a film worth screening.
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Check out my previous post…
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About Penny Marie
Penny Marie is a New Zealand-based investigative reporter, and founder of Let Kids Be Kids. Please follow, comment, share and support my work. Subscribe to my Substack, X (I also post these articles on X) and YouTube - and turn notifications on.
