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“There are more viruses on earth than stars in the universe. In Viruses on Film, pathogens star in a cinematic exploration of how microorganisms shape human politics, thinking, desire, and intimacy around the world. Spanning seven decades, the filmmakers in this retrospective sometimes imagine viruses musically (The Hole), as science fiction (12 Monkeys, The Andromeda Strain), as Hollywood drama (Contagion), as British and Korean zombie horror (28 Days Later, Train to Busan) and as darkly comic metaphors of capitalism (Parasite) and computers (Hackers). But other times, they confront viruses directly, depicting when Ebola devastated Sierra Leone (Survivors); how HIV shaped gay activism and love in France (BPM), England (Blue) and the United States (Tongues Untied, United in Anger); and, in Brazil, why the novel coronavirus forced humans to find sex and connection in new ways (Follow the Protocols) while making great sacrifices (Voluntario ****1864). From the medieval-era bubonic plague in Roger Corman’s campy 1964 Masque of the Red Death to the overwhelmed Wuhan hospitals in Weixi Chen, Hao Wu and Anonymous’s 2020 documentary 76 Days, these 18 films from eight countries in in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas will help viewers not only process our viral past and present but—perhaps—to learn from viruses how we might imagine a better future, together.”
—Steven W. Thrasher, co-curator and author of The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide