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A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic
- Default Title
Description
A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic is a film book like no other. It opens with the author's first-hand account of the Covid-19 pandemic and life in lockdown. His sense of dread, and anxiety about his state of health, were experiences shared with millions of others across the world. Already committed to writing a book about plagues and pandemics in popular culture, Covid-19 felt like a perverse twist of fate for Richard Scheib. Media depictions of deadly contagions had, to this point, been speculative and often off the mark; his book takes an in-depth look at what filmmakers imagined would happen and contrasts it with the reality.
International in scope, the book examines films in a wide variety of genres, from the silent era to the present day. Black Death, Ebola, Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu - it explores fictionalized accounts of plague and pestilence such as box-office hit Outbreak (1995), as well as 'mockumentary' treatments. Whether the threats depicted have a basis in reality - the biowarfare of the Cold War era, for instance - or are more fantastical, Scheib demonstrates how the fear of contagion has provided a wealth of inspiration for the big and small screen.
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Number of Pages:
220
Release Date:
2025-03-03
Publication Date:
2025-06-19
Publisher:
Headpress
Languages:
Original:
English
ISBN10:
1915316391
ISBN13:
9781915316394
Weight:
571 g
Height:
170 cm
Width:
244 cm
Thickness:
14 cm
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