Swank offers streaming access to feature films, documentaries, TV shows, and foreign films. South College titles are chosen by faculty for course use. Swank Digital Campus can show different films or TV shows because they license and distribute to non-theatrical markets, which allows them to be used by colleges, libraries, hospitals, and more. Currently, there are 20 titles available to watch through South College, including A Beautiful Mind, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Wizard of Oz, and Contagion.
Contagion was released in 2011 and is a global action thriller revolving around the threat of a deadly outbreak of a fatal disease and the medical community racing to find a cure as the public’s panic spreads faster than the virus does. It runs for one hour and sixteen minutes and is directed by Steven Soderbergh. This film has a star-studded cast featuring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, and Laurence Fishbourne.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) are heavily present throughout the film. The CDC’s main goal is to protect Americans from health, safety, and security threats and to fight disease while encouraging communities and citizens to do the same (CDC Organization, 2023). WHO promotes health, keeping the world safe, and serving vulnerable people while trying to provide people with better health and well-being (World Health Organization, 2023).
While watching this film, it was hard not to notice all the similarities between MEV-1 and the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms for both include sweating, coughing, headache, and fever. Underlying medical conditions make the illness worse, both in the film and the real-life disease, . Further similarities include the need to quarantine while symptomatic and the practice of contact tracing to minimize disease spread. This film’s popularity peaked again in 2020 (Kritz, 2020), and it’s easy to see why. COVID-19 saw 350,831 deaths in 2020 (Centers for Disease Control, 2022) and it left everyone in a state of shock, confusion, and uncertainty. Everyone’s lives changed in 2020 as we all experienced lockdowns, wearing a mask around others, working remotely or losing a job altogether, online school, and so much more. It’s understandable that people would watch this film. Perhaps to see how the film’s events played out so they could find solace in an otherwise confusing time, or maybe to see how they cured the disease in the movie so they could have some hope. Regardless of the reason why, I found it to be a fascinating film and recommend it.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, January 7). 2020 final death statistics: Covid-19 as an underlying cause of death vs. contributing cause. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/podcasts/2022/20220107/20220107.htm
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, February 21). CDC organization. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/cio.htm#:~:text=CDC%20works%2024%2F7%20to,citizens%20to%20do%20the%20same.
Kritz, F. (2020, February 16). Fact-checking “contagion” - in wake of Coronavirus, the 2011 movie is trending. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/16/802704825/fact-checking-contagion-in-wake-of-coronavirus-the-2011-movie-is-trending
World Health Organization. (n.d.). What we do. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/about/what-we-do#:~:text=WHO%20works%20worldwide%20to%20promote,better%20health%20and%20well%2Dbeing.
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