i need an essay about the subject attatched below, MLA format 3 pages minimum of 2 resurces. 

 

 

Contagion (2011)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Recent reports concerning the Ebola virus offer a ‘real-time’ example of the themes we have

been discussing in class. The virus is a bio-organic entity with the capacity to become a global

event. Its effects must be managed and contained in order to sustain normative levels of

health. Given its potential for mass fatality, information about the virus is volatile, and thus

subject to bias and misinformation. Contagious viruses are a public health concern, and the

intervention against such events, the managed response, is an inherently political question,

which exposes the raw linkages between power and knowledge. Who is responsible for

quarantining and controlling the ‘outbreak?’ What do such ‘outbreaks’ reveal about our

shared world and the systems that sustain its homeostasis? How does it bring into question

the movement of bodies across boundaries and borders? What kinds of moral judgments and

stereotypes circulate around the infected? What role does the media play in such events? In

what ways does Science, in its official capacity, consider itself exempt from the media?

Questions to consider during the film:

How does the film establish the rules of the world it is depicting? Do you believe its portrayal is

realistic? How so? What factors lead you to this conclusion? If it is our world, how then is it

our world?

The director Soderbergh is often praised for his narrative techniques involving perspectives on

multiple-characters. How is this so-called ‘hyper-linked’ narration used to portray the story of

the ‘contagion?’ Why are ‘disaster’ films so adept at revealing the world as we imagine it to be?

What is the role of fear and paranoia in the film (including you as the viewer)?

Resources about Ebola:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html?_r=0

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/ebolanomics

Richard Preston, The Hot Zone. Classic, popular account (originally a New Yorker essay)

Other Medical Disaster/Disease Films:

Outbreak (1995) Dir. Wolfgang Petersen

Andromeda Strain (1971)—based on Michael Crichton novel

The Satan Bug (1965)

12 Monkeys (1995) Dir. Terry Gilliam