What’s a pop star to do when their world tour gets canceled, and life as they know it feels like a horribly unpredictable nightmare? For Charli XCX, the only way out is through. In place of her Covid-dashed plans for 2020, Charli XCX channeled her creative energy into creating a new album, which she accomplished in quarantine and with the help of some of her biggest fans, which the new documentary Alone Together captures.

As documented in the SXSW closing night film Alone Together (directed by Bradley Bell and Pablo Jones-Soler–professionally known as Bradley & Pablo), Charli XCX adopts a total DIY approach in order to write, produce, and release an entire album and accompanying music video in a matter of weeks. Taking to social media and everyone’s favorite video conference app, Zoom, Charli XCX encouraged fans to submit lyrics, artwork, and other ideas that ultimately helped bring her album “How I’m Feeling Now” to life. As the doc shows, this not only served as a way for Charli XCX to connect to the outside world when she needed it most, but it also gave her globally-reaching fan club a sense of shared purpose and belonging during a time of uncertainty and isolation.

Scored by Alex Somers (Honey Boy), the music doc uses a hybrid of mixed media to tell this far-reaching story, including Instagram, digital avatars, and self-shot footage by Charli XCX herself. This intimate documentary captures everything from the romanticizing of the early stages of quarantine to the effects it takes on her mental health (and that of many others). By sharing her vulnerability with her fans in real-time and throughout this film, the film acts as a life-raft for those who feel as if they’ve been wading through the physical and emotional turmoil that 2020 brought. Charli XCX proves that despite life’s disappointments and hardships, music will always have the ability to connect us, and that’s something COVID-19 can never cancel.