Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (1996)
Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (1996)
50 mins. - CBC Witness, WGBH/PBS NOVA and Channel 4 - Associated Producers Ltd.
EBOLA: INSIDE AN OUTBREAK (1996)
AKA PLAGUE FIGHTERS
AN ASSOCIATED PRODUCERS FILM
60 MINS. • CBC WITNESS, WGBH/PBS NOVA AND CHANNEL 4
CREDITS:
Directed by RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK
Producers SIMCHA JACOBOVICI, ELLIOTT HALPERN & RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK
Associate Producer MARIKE EMERY
Editors STEVE WESLAK & ION WEBSTER
Composers AARON DAVIS & JOHN LANG
AN ASSOCIATED PRODUCERS LTD. PRODUCTION
PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH CBC, NOVA, WGBH/Boston AND Channel 4
Bienstock on location in Zaire.
“It makes for amazing viewing. Riveting, grueling, compelling, important and so much more. Choose your own adjective. But don’t miss it.”
In May and June of 1995, the deadliest disease known to the human species emerged from a Zairian rainforest – Ebola.
For the first time ever, a documentary takes viewers inside a viral outbreak and the battle to contain it. EBOLA: INSIDE AN OUTBREAK/PLAGUE FIGHTERS goes beyond the headlines and past the quarantine lines for an up close and unsettling look at the Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, Zaire.
As the crisis unfolds, we travel with the local Red Cross, whose workers risk their lives collecting “hot” corpses. We follow local doctors tending to the sick in isolation wards – where bleeding Ebola patients spend their last agonizing moments. Viewers are taken deep into the Zairian rainforest where medical students search for the first case, “Patient Zero.” And in the hope of discovering Ebola’s source, we follow scientists clad in bio-containment “space” suits through the steamy swelter of the forest, as they trap and dissect rats, insects and giant bats.
EBOLA: INSIDE AN OUTBREAK/PLAGUE FIGHTERS is an insightful, well-researched and dramatic account of a life and death skirmish with one of the most deadly viruses known to humankind.
How do you stop an acute outbreak of the world's deadliest virus—that's how it was characterized at the time—in an environment where there's no electricity, no running water, no newspapers, no radios? It's not only a medical challenge, it's a social challenge. And that's exactly what's still happening now.
Ric Esther Bienstock
"On the Ground in an Ebola Outbreak"
Esquire, Aug 7, 2014 - Read it HERE
SELECTED AWARDS:
Gemini Award, Best Science Documentary, 1997
Gemini Award, Best Documentary Score, 1997
Alfred I. Dupont - Columbia University Award for TV Journalism, 1996
Hot Docs, Best Science Documentary, 1997
Gold Plaque, Chicago International Television Festival, 1996
Best Achievement in Documentaries, Monitor Awards, 1996
First Place Freddie Award, American Medical Association, 1996
Chris Award, Columbus International Film Festival, 1996