Pandemic Perspectives


A thoughtful window into a spectrum of key societal issues illuminated by the COVID-19 Pandemic through the prism of 32 international experts in biology, education, history, law, philosophy, politics, psychology, and more. All participants were filmed remotely using local film crews during the second half of 2021.

“…a unique document that will be a resource for future students of the pandemic and reactions to it for many years.“—Martin Jay, UC Berkeley

In this brilliant and unsettling film Burton takes us where others fear to go, probing deep into the causes of the causes, exposing the sloppiness of our thinking and making us smash up our tired, worn paradigms.” — Charles Foster, University of Oxford

Year: 2022; IMDB page here
Runtime: 92 minutes
Pricing: 72-hour rental for $3.99 or purchase for $9.99
Accompanying book: Pandemic Perspectives: A filmmaker’s journey in 10 essays (details here)
Where can I watch the film: rent or purchase the film worldwide on the new Ideas Roadshow app, on Vimeo On Demand or on Amazon Prime, or get the film on DVD – click on the related button below.

Educational version DVD with PPR – UPC 810134942318: visit HERE
Digital Site License: please contact [email protected] for information

More praise for Pandemic Perspectives:

“Pandemic Perspectives presents a unique window into responses — institutional, personal, and communal — to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conversations with people in different fields of endeavor turn into something more, when viewed together: a paean to human creativity and resilience, even in the midst of a devastating pandemic.” Christopher Celenza, James B. Knapp Dean, Johns Hopkins University

The SARS-COV-2 pandemic stopped the world. This film tells us how we might restart it, and perhaps do better next time around. The interviews make the viewer think long and hard about how we got ourselves into this mess, what we can learn from it, and what it says about us as a species.” — Lorraine Daston, Director emerita Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Below is a list of the 32 experts who have participated in Pandemic Perspectives:

  • Elizabeth Anderson, Max Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy, University of Michigan
  • Ann-Sophie Barwich, Assistant Professor of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, Indiana University Bloomington
  • Roy Baumeister, Professor of Psychology, University of Queensland
  • Michael Berry, Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies, UCLA 
  • Christopher Celenza, James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
  • Patricia Churchland, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, UC San Diego
  • Lorraine Daston, Director Emerita of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
  • John Dunn, Emeritus Professor of Political Thought, University of Cambridge
  • John Dupré, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Egenis, University of Exeter
  • Charles Foster, Professor of Law and Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford
  • Richard Frank, Director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy; Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; Professor of Health Economics at Harvard Medical School
  • Michael Frazer, Associate Professor in Political and Social Theory, University of East Anglia
  • Michael Gordin, Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Princeton University
  • Joanna Haigh, Professor of Physics, Imperial College London
  • Brian Hie, Stanford Science Fellow, Stanford University School of Medicine
  • Andy Hoffman, Holcim (US), Inc. Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan
  • Rush Holt, Former US Congressman, Current Director’s Visitor, Institute for Advanced Study
  • Martin Jay, Ehrman Professor of European History Emeritus, UC Berkeley
  • Paul Kahn, Robert W. Winner Professor of Law and the Humanities and Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr . Center for International Human Rights, Yale University
  • Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Columbia University
  • Fyodor Kondrashov, Professor of Evolutionary Genomics, Institute of Science and Technology, Austria
  • Stephen Kosslyn, President, Active Learning Sciences; Founder and CAO Foundry College; Founding Dean Minerva Schools; Former Dean of Social Sciences Harvard University
  • Darrin McMahon, Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History, Dartmouth College
  • Samuel Moyn, Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale University
  • Miguel Nicolelis, Professor in Neuroscience, Duke University
  • Caroline Paunov, Senior Economist and Head of Secretariat for the Working Party on Innovation and Technology Policy, OECD
  • Alexandre Quintanilha, Member of Portuguese Parliament; Former Director of the Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, University of Porto
  • Teofilo Ruiz, Distinguished Research Professor of History, UCLA
  • Stephen Scherer, Chief of Research at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto
  • John Tregoning, Reader in Respiratory Infections, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College
  • Gavin Yamey, Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University
  • Yong Zhao, Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education, University of Kansas & Professor in Educational Leadership, Melbourne Graduate School of Education