Dis-Ease

Declaring "war on disease" affects how we treat sick people, how we define the "public" in public health, and how we respond to real-world pandemics.. This was demonstrated vividly during the COVID-19 crisis, when these declarations of war initiated militarized states of emergency, prompted border lockdowns, and refreshed old fears about "foreign" pathogens. But why was this public health crisis being treated as a national security issue? What else does this metaphor do in the world? And what if it weren't a war? To answer those questions, the feature-length documentary "Dis-Ease" retraces the origin and evolution of our "war on disease" through the history, philosophy, culture, and pop-cultural imaginaries of medicine. It is constructed around particular episodes in the history of human encounters with epidemic, endemic, and pandemic diseases, including plague, malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19. By examining the cultural history that runs alongside the growing scientific understanding of these diseases over time, DIS-EASE looks to understand how pandemic preparedness became framed as biodefense, and how that has contributed to the present crisis. And it proposes alternatives for the future.