Agent Cool Blue Goes To Hollywood

Goodbye, Mr. Germ

September 1940 •English

A doctor explains to his children the dangers of tuberculosis, what it is and how to prevent against contracting it.

A Modern Guide to Health

June 1946 •English

Modern advice and old-fashioned values combine in this postwar animated health guide from the makers of Animal Farm.

So Much for So Little

January 1949 •English

Little Johnny Jones, to be born in the next year, is shown growing to a ripe, healthy old age, thanks to the efforts of his local public health officers. But without them, he might be one of the 5% or so that dies in the first year. The price for the public health service: about 3 cents a week. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.

The Story of Cholera

December 2011 •English

This film makes visible the invisible cholera germs as a young boy shows how to help the sick and guides his village in preventing the spread of cholera.

The Tobacconist

January 1974 •French

Die Fliege Majanka und ihre Abenteuer

January 1927 •German

A fly, taken with humanity, decides that it would be best if all flies were wiped out.

The Age of Water

October 2024 •Spanish

When the water in her small Mexican town proves to be radioactive, a young mom suddenly finds herself leading a local resistance movement. Her life is upended when she has to face a powerful and corrupt government hellbent on burying the truth.

Letter Beyond the Walls

September 2019 •Portuguese

Letter Beyond the Walls reconstructs the trajectory of HIV and AIDS with a focus on Brazil, through interviews with doctors, activists, patients and other actors, in addition to extensive archival material. From the initial panic to awareness campaigns, passing through the stigma imposed on people living with HIV, the documentary shows how society faced this epidemic in its deadliest phase over more than two decades. With this historical approach as its base, the film looks at the way HIV is viewed in today's society, revealing a picture of persistent misinformation and prejudice, which especially affects Brazil’s most historically vulnerable populations.

Panic in the Streets

July 1950 •English

A medical examiner discovers that an innocent shooting victim in a robbery died of bubonic plague. With only 48 hours to find the killer, who is now a ticking time bomb threatening the entire city, a grisly manhunt through the seamy underworld of the New Orleans Waterfront is underway.

Dr. Andrew Weil's Guide to Eating Well

June 2007 •English

One of America's best-known and most respected doctors offers a sensible approach to eating: He emphasizes enjoyment over deprivation, and long-term health benefits over short-term weight loss. Dr. Weil assures us that there is no confusion among nutrition experts about the optimal diet for health, body weight, and longevity. Understanding inflammation to be the root cause of many chronic illnesses, he gives science-based recommendations to help combat specific health concerns, all as part of an anti-inflammatory diet. On the subject of dietary supplements, he talks about what's perilous and what can help.

What About ME?

January 2016 •English

Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.

Coughs and Sneezes

January 1945 •English

This film explains how sneezing in public can spread disease, and shows how using a handkerchief can stop it.

The Great Fog of 1952

March 2023 •English

In the 1950s, a devastating fog descended on London and enveloped the capital for several days, leaving Londoners lost in their own streets in one of the UK's biggest peacetime catastrophes.

No Smoking

January 1960 •English

Made by Sid Davis, a prolific director of social guidance films, this anti-smoking film takes a blunt, no-nonsense approach to smoking cessation, arguing against the deceit of the tobacco industry with staged reenactments, stark narration, and bold title cards promising smokers a shorter life expectancy due to lung cancer.

Undocumented in the Pandemic

August 2020 •English

With The Marshall Project and the Pulitzer Center, a look at one immigrant mother’s struggle to keep her children safe and housed, with her husband detained by ICE in a facility where COVID is spreading. Also in this two-part hour, Love, Life & the Virus.

Toubib

August 2024 •French

Nemoc z nemytých rukou

January 1954 •Czech

Voices from the Shadows

Invalid date •English

‘Voices from the Shadows’ shows the brave and sometimes heartrending stories of five ME patients and their carers, along with input from Dr Nigel Speight, Prof Leonard Jason and Prof Malcolm Hooper. These were filmed and edited between 2009 and 2011, by the brother and mother of an ME patient in the UK. It shows the devastating consequences that occur when patients are disbelieved and the illness is misunderstood. Severe and lasting relapse occurs when patients are given inappropriate psychological or behavioural management: management that ignores the severe amplification of symptoms that can be caused by increased physical or mental activity or exposure to stimuli, and by further infections. A belief in behavioural and psychological causes, particularly when ME becomes very severe and chronic, following mismanagement, is still taught to medical students and healthcare professionals in the UK. As a consequence, situations similar to those shown in the film continue to occur.

Dis-Ease

August 2024 •English

DIS-EASE is a feature-length documentary about how we imagine disease, and how that affects what we do when we encounter illness, outbreaks, doctors, treatments, and disability in real life. It dives deep into the weird, wild archives of medical imaging, public health messaging, and pop-culture outbreak narratives to understand how ideas have moved between science, science fiction, and political ideology over the past century. (Yes, this is a film that covers both antibiotic resistance and the persistence of zombie apocalypse films.) Ultimately, DIS-EASE is a provocation to re-think how we define both the "public" and "health" in public health - who is included, what counts as care, and what it means to be sick or well in a world perpetually on the brink of collapse.

Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen

August 2009 •English

Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen is a 2009 television drama. It deals with Dr James Niven's attempts to deal with the 1918 flu pandemic in Manchester. Its screenplay was written by Peter Harness and it starred Bill Paterson as Niven, along with Mark Gatiss, Kenneth Cranham and Charlotte Riley. It was first broadcast on BBC Four on 5 August 2009.