The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Story of Science and Humanity

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic left a profound mark on the year 2020. Human communities, all over the world, were rocked and reacted to the situation in ways that reflect their history, culture, geography, reliance on science to make informed decisions, and leadership. Prior to the institution of quarantine in the United States, our team of film producers identified a chance to capture unique and precious lessons learned as a result of the pandemic as they unfolded. The immediacy of capturing these stories was heightened by the fact that lessons and understanding evolve as people are given time to process events. As such, we began the production of a feature-length documentary as testimony to how the pandemic unfolded and related experiences of individuals and organizations from around the planet. The pandemic can be examined through the lenses of science, including the fields of biology, computer modeling, political science, disaster risk reduction, and psychology. Even more, at its underpinnings, are human qualities that are much more difficult to understand - fear, pain, confusion, response, resilience, and hope. During our engagement with the production of this film, we applied (sometimes reinforced through arduous failures) specific practices to braiding different bodies of knowledge for authenticity and impact. Different from exacting education and communication research, we applied specific, evidenced communication theories to unite science and the more intangible human element to give our film impact and inspire the viewing audience to take action. Such filmmaking devices can be incorporated into other science communication media. During this talk we will share foundational film production and storytelling techniques, as well as reflect on best practices we found valuable for brading technical knowledge and human experience to capture an unprecedented time in human history.