I review a series of documentaries & movies relevant to humanity’s current fight. I rate each documentary based on how well it challenges mainstream indoctrination on these issues according to my amateur epidemiological understanding of this moment. I don’t pretend to be unbiased in my research. The list merely reflects the chronological order in which I reviewed them. Skip to the highest rated documentaries if you have time to dive in.
I also include two movies that were relevant.
1. SRS, one of the Most Dangerous Viruses (PRE)
Rating 8
Solid scientific look at SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and its origins in 2003, with Hong Kong at the epicenter. Gives us perspective on what we are up against today. Coronavirus is almost like a SARS II in a sense that the U.S. ruling structures were not ready for. China was much more prepared.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-wf_cC0Kek&t=1371s
2. The Truth About The Ebola Virus | Science Documentary 2019
Rating 10
In terms of understanding Ebola — beyond the racism and sensationalism of the mainstream and Vice hipster news — this is a unbiased, solid documentary. The opening scene of children in Liberia was touching. The Ebola River stretches 250 kilometers across the Congo by the way. How did the mainstream media mutate that word into something perceived as pure ugliness?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koGNve1i4Mw&list=LLQkgdty5_bmDrw19dolYZcg&index=2&t=8s
3. The Lockdown 1 Month in Wuhan
Rating 10
There is a lot of misinformation and stereotypes in this time of a pandemic. This 30 minute mini-documentary from Wuhan, China, a city that survived and beat the virus is excellent. How did Chinese society and leadership tackle this virus?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU9FVqwO4TM&t=1455s
4. Vox’s Why New Diseases Keep Appearing in China
Rating 4
Despite anti-Chinese title and slant, quick look at China’s wet markets as bearers of disease. Do they really believe U.S. slaughterhouses are superior to Chinese markets in terms of hygiene?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPpoJGYlW54
5. Vice: The Fight against Ebola
Rating 1
Everything you would expect from Hipster News aka Vice. Pathetic. The usual sensationalism. If you give them a click, you will be betraying your own humanity and it will be the last time my extended community and I ever speak to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANUI4uT3xJI
6. After Ebola: Nebraska & the next Pandemic
Rating 4
A look at how one white man receives an entire super-tech hospital and medical staff to fight Ebola as thousands of Africans die. Beyond that painful reality, the documentary walks us through a specialized hospital’s approach to Ebola whereas in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the nurses and doctors had no access to this technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQsCQQEG-JA&t=1108s
7. We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918
Rating 5
Interviews with survivors of the 1918 “American Influenza” (known to racist history as the Spanish flu). This influenza wiped out the lives of millions across the U.S. and the world. Scientists from the University of Iowa studied Inuit bodies frozen in permafrost to understand the virus.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkGi9FKZzDI&t=1775s
8. Timeline: The Great Plague The Black Death
Rating 5
This is a documentary film that recreates life in the alleys of 1660 London as The Great Bubonic Plague decimates large swaths of English society. The rich of course fled London. The Bubonic Plague which began in the 1300’s was transported by fleas that fed off of black rats. Fascinating that all these plagues share a common origin, viruses that jump species. Mother Nature always has the last say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPe6BgzHWY0
9. 93 Days
Rating 6
This is a 2016 Netflix drama about the Ebola virus arriving in Lagos, Nigeria. I don’t think it has any real pedagogical value but Danny Glover is an unwavering defender of the poor and critic of U.S. foreign policy so I bumped it up two points.
10. Contagion
Rating 7
This rating is based more on sheer entertainment value but the movie also has real lessons. Dr. W. Ian Lipkin is an infectious disease expert who served as a consultant for Contagion and helped inform this Hollywood movie. Based on the 2003 SARS experience, the movie basically predicts everything we are living through today.
11. Interview with Dr. W. Ian Lipkin who Breaks down Coronavirus
Rating 8
Dr. Lipkin, the Columbia University virologist’s main point is that there is no bunker or escaping the spread of these viruses if we don’t respect Mother Earth. Climate change is fueling the proliferation of these viruses. Mother Nature again will have the last word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHs9VBShzbA&t=728s
12. Outbreak
Rating 5
Not the best acting but this Hollywood film with a star-studded cast makes the point we are all living through now…a virus one trillionth (1/1,000,000,000,000) our size can beat us all into oblivion.
