A film by Susan Thomson, The Cytokine Storms (2020, 38 mins) deals with the U.K. government’s response to the pandemic, looking at the contemporary echoes in British colonial responses to the Irish Famine and Indian Famines, including Bengal.
The full-length film is available to watch for a limited time here:
vimeo.com/484199981
A lyrical essay film, it looks at the ‘laissez-faire’ economics of the British colonial governments and their indifference to colonised or marginalised lives, and how this type of neoliberal thinking is in many ways still present. It also interweaves the personal, looking at questions of national identity. Narrated by myself as a masked figure - wearing a mask made from material featuring a map of the UK and Ireland, it performs a recent historical analysis or overview of the UK and Ireland through melding together various street protests in both places, from my archival footage, including XR, Repeal 8, Brexit and EU marches, prorogue of parliament, equal marriage and water marches, together with the stillness of lockdown footage. This film was made thanks to an Arts Council of Ireland Covid-19 award.
susanthomson.co.uk
