Abstract

A film by Janet Tobias of Sierra Tango Productions

Running time 97 minutes followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Janet Tobias and Dr Laurie Denyer Willis (CGHR)

In the 21st century, we are all connected. Population growth, mass urbanization, deforestation, climate change and increased travel have dramatically increased the risk that familiar diseases will spread and mutate, and new ones will emerge. As people enter new spheres of biodiversity, they come into closer contact with other species, increasing the risk of viruses jumping from animals to humans, and then spreading more widely. Unseen Enemy is an essential exploration of the reasons why 21st-century populations are experiencing a rash of diseases that were once only outbreaks, but have now become full-blown epidemics. This increased risk that we face, and the ways society and individuals can work together to reduce that risk, are explained to the public through the case studies of three epidemics: Ebola, influenza and Zika.

Trailers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvX8_nEMxg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZgBg8vYKk4

Panelist Bios: Janet Tobias is an Emmy-Award winning filmmaker with parallel careers in medicine/technology and film/television. Tobias started her film and television career at CBS ’ 60 Minutes as Diane Sawyer’s associate producer. She then worked as a producer at ABC News’ Prime Time and as the editorial producer for ABC ’s legal and criminal justice coverage. Later, she worked as a national producer at Dateline NBC , and then as an executive producer at VNI (which became New York Times Television). After working at the networks, she moved to PBS where she created and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning PBS program Life 360. In 2001, Tobias founded her own television/film production company Sierra/ Tango Productions. In the last decade, Sierra/Tango has produced over a dozen documentaries on social issues ranging from medical ethics to the life of teenagers in America.

Dr Laurie Denyer Willis is a medical anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Research Associate at CGHR . Her research considers the urban and political ecologies of health and disease in postcolonial landscapes. She has conducted long-term ethnographic research on Pentecostalism, race and public health in Brazil. She is currently engaged in a project on epidemics, public health communications, and artificial intelligance (AI), with and emphasis on the Zika virus in Lusophone Africa.

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