Very little in this film failed to convice me. The information was well thought out and put together, the resources that were in this film were vaild and cannot be refuted because they are first hand accounts. This film does shine a negative light on nuclear power, which made me a little concerned because nuclear power is not always dangerous, but other then that nothing was done sloppily or had incorrect information
Any interview qithe the prime minister or TEPCO official, it just seems as they would try and protect their image as apposed to doing it for benefit.
I found the images of speaches by the liberian president to be out of place and not compelling. I also found the apparent lack of hard numerical and scientific data in the film to be offputting.
A significant portion of the film was looking at the government’s attempts to contain the outbreak, and criticizing their actions. The citizens who spoke complained that the government was not providing them with food and water, and believed the quarantines were unjust and needed to be lifted. This argument was not persuasive as the perspectives shown were only those of the people living in quarantine zones, and the perspective of the health officials who recommended the quarantines were not shown. A the film said, the Liberians did not have health education or information available to them and had no understanding of why the quarantines were in place, which is crucial to determining if it was an injustice on the part of the government or if the quarantines were a necessary step in attempting to contain Ebola.
I did not find the portions of the President speaking very compelling. While I understand that the speeches provided context, it did not show any perspective from the governmental side. Had they provided interviews from government officials, that would have helped the argument and framed a better picture for the viewer.
I found aspects involving the governments response to the situation very unconvincing. I would like to have seen more in the documentary about the government's attempts to inform and the actions they took. This may have been due to a lack of efforts taken by the government. Yet seeing more about the government's involvement as well as the hospital's and doctor's would have made that side of the situation far more compelling. The way it was portrayed in the documentary made it very unconvincing and I was not compelled by it.
The main narrative of the film “In the Shadow of Ebola” is to show the impact from the top to bottom of the disease and the response to that disease. This includes international decisions affecting the nation of Liberia, the national government’s actions affecting the local communities and families there. Disease awareness and infrastructure are the main focus.
I felt that the extend interview time of Emmanuel Urey’s family in the US did not further any real understanding of the issue and was just an appeal to the viewer’s emotion.
Not much, to be honest. I was disappointed they didn't mention fire fighters much in it though.
The film gave a lot of instances where the providers were more or less just having fun. For example, nearly every interview invoved the guys sitting down and drinking a beer while joking. While this proved their humanity, it also showed that the doctors spent much of their free time having fun rather than getting sleep. I would assume that they weren't drinkng while still "on call" or planning on giving care, and thus had the time to get proper rest. The amount of luxury afforded to the doctors after the trip also was a bit less compelling. At the end, the doctors were swimming at a nice pool and just relaxing, which is understandable for destressing. But it also seemed to take away some perspective. These doctors go on about how little resources they have to give and how the wish they could stay on their mission, but immediately turn back to luxury. Its just a bit hypocritical. And I understand that they cannot directly contribute to the people they care for in terms of wealth, but I found it was a bit unnecessary to include in the film.