Screening Contagion Film Series: ‘Contagion’
The Screening Contagion Film Series invites you to view four pandemic films, then attend a series of panel discussions with faculty drawn from a variety of disciplines. The four films include a Hollywood blockbuster (Steven Soderbergh, Contagion), a classic of world cinema (Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal), a horror comedy (Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead) and a contemporary documentary about the Wuhan lockdown (Ai Weiwei, Coronation). How might these films help us understand pandemics in the past, present and future? How does our own pandemic moment inform how we view these films? Please join us for a wide-ranging conversation with faculty in the humanities, arts and medicine as they help us make sense of our own experiences with COVID-19.
Film discussions take place February 11, March 11, April 8 and April 29.
This film discussion series is free and open to the public.
Thursday, February 11 discussion: Steven Soderbergh, Contagion (2011)
Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a pandemic as the CDC works to find a cure.
View a recording of this discussion here
Members of the Washington University community (with a WUSTL key) may view the film prior to the discussion here. (Click on “WUSTL online resource” to be connected to the film.) All others can find stream/rent/buy options on JustWatch.com.
Panelists
Corinna Treitel, Professor of History, Director of Medical Humanities, Washington University
Patricia Olynyk, the Florence and Frank Bush Professor of Art, Washington University
Piroska Kopar, Director, Center for Humanism and Ethics in Surgical Specialties (CHESS) and Assistant Professor of Acute and Critical Care Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine
Peter Lunenfeld, Vice Chair and Professor of Design Media Arts, Media Theorist, UCLA