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Epidemic Films to Die For
A Chronicle of the Covid-19 Plague Years
by Tom Zaniello
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Book Presentation:
Epidemic cinema remains an enduring genre of contemporary film, ranging from medical dramas to post-apocalyptic thrillers. Using a vast filmography, Zaniello not only details the incredible variety of epidemics and their role in popular culture, but also demonstrates how epidemics, as a rule, have been confronted without proper preparation or deployment of resources in different forms of media. Therefore, Epidemic Films to Die For is the first and the only book that extensively analyzes the history and deployment of films and TV series towards a chronicle of epidemic films. In addition to providing an overview of how widespread disease and illness have been historically depicted via film and media, this book skillfully contextualizes the contemporary ongoing moment in which filmmakers and producers grapple with the cultural imaginary surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the Author:
Tom Zaniello is Professor Emeritus, having taught film and cultural studies, and directed the Honors Program at Northern Kentucky University, USA. He has been active as a film programmer for the Hill Center in Washington DC and for the London and North West (Liverpool) Labour Film Festivals. He recently published California's Lamson Murder Mystery (2016), the story of the wrongful conviction of a Hollywood screenwriter for murder, along with Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor, 2nd ed. (2003) and The Cinema of Globalization (2007).
Press Reviews:
"Whether it be in historical films or more futuristic, utopian idioms, the movie industry has – more often than you thought – responded imaginatively and dramatically to epidemics. In the wake of the Covid-I9 pandemic, brilliant researcher and writer Tom Zaniello's timely, personal and deeply original study shows how, from cholera to ebola to AIDS/HIV and beyond, makers of fiction and documentary movies have turned human sickness into entertainment and – sometimes poisonous! - food for thought." ―Adrian Grafe, BA Hons. (Oxon), Professor of English, Artois University, France, and author of The Ravens of Vienna (2023)
"We might see popular narratives about seemingly-uncontrollable diseases as a post-COVID cultural fascination, but Tom Zaniello's review of epidemic cinema makes clear that the genre has a long and varied history. Looking across eras and genres, this book helps us see how film narratives about flu variations, AIDS, zombies, the opioid epidemic, and climate change all reveal persistent anxieties about the body, the limits of governmental control, inequality, and morality. Zaniello serves as an entertaining and knowledgeable guide to a vast catalogue of films we might miss -- but shouldn't." ―Sherry Linkon, Professor of English, Writing, and American Studies, Georgetown University, USA
"In Epidemic Films to Die For, Tom Zaniello delivers a refreshing contribution to the emerging genre of Epidemic Cinema. The book will become a reference in Film Studies for its impressive compendium of epidemic films and for widening the genre's scope by including non-pathogenic epidemics like drugs, toxins, and radioactivity. Zaniello's energetic and down-to-earth style makes Epidemic Films to Die For a contagiously delightful, fun-to-read experience." ―Julia Echeverría, Assistant Professor, University of Zaragoza, Spain
"Part history, part filmography, part cultural and social analysis, Tom Zaniello's Epidemic Films to Die For is a rich and varied portmanteau of a book. Capturing a wide variety of celluloid dedicated to reflecting an ongoing fascination with disease, viruses and epidemics it will be a bench mark for understanding the cultural impact of natural and human made pathogens." ―Tim Strangleman, Professor of Sociology, University of Kent, UK
See the publisher website: Bloomsbury Academic
> From the same author:
Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff (2003)
An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor
by Tom Zaniello
Subject: On Films > Film selections
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