Update, 10.31.20 — ‘Totally Under Control’ Documentary Streams for Free Through Election Day: “Neon is making “Totally Under Control,” its documentary about the White House’s response to COVID-19, available to stream on its website for free through Election Day on Nov. 3.”
Original post from 10.27.20 follows —
Noted documentarian Alex Gibney’s Totally Under Control recounts the course of the coronavirus pandemic in America. The film is available @ Hulu (where I saw it) and on demand.
There’s a way of thinking about the pandemic in which those who discount its effects condescendingly accuse others of being fearful.
I’ll not answer for all others, but in my own case, it’s not fear, but rational calculation, that shapes my thinking. (I’m out and about with standard precautions, including a mask, each day.)
That calculation – the application of reason and reading to circumstances – leads one to see that the costs of the pandemic (in life, health, and wealth) were significantly preventable. Other societies have done better; we could have done far better.
The trailer for Totally Under Control appears above; the description accompanying the trailer appears immediately below.
On January 20th, 2020 the US and South Korea both discovered their first cases of COVID-19. However, 9 months later, the novel Coronavirus has claimed the lives of over 200,000 Americans and caused staggering economic damage, while in South Korea, there were no significant lockdowns and, in an urbanized population of 51 million, less than 500 lives have been lost. Where did we go wrong? As the presidential election nears, Americans are increasingly enraged by a lack of clear leadership, endemic political corruption and left to wonder how did the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world manage to fail so thoroughly in its response to a global pandemic?
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, directing with Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, interrogates this question and its devastating implications in Totally Under Control. With damning testimony from public health officials and hard investigative reporting, Gibney exposes a system-wide collapse caused by a profound dereliction of Presidential leadership.