Subject: Disasters & Diseases
From Pompeii and Hurricane Katrina to the Black Death and the AIDS epidemic, these are catastrophes that affect humanity on a grand scale. Often these are generated by natural events, though the true disaster can be the human response—or lack thereof.
A Night to Remember
- Director: Roy Ward Baker
- Release Date: 1958
- Production Country: United Kingdom
Gaining a berth on the Royal Mail Ship's Titanic as a 2nd Officer is an honor for Charles Lightholler, but the honor is soon tarnished when the ship is badly damaged by an iceberg mid-voyage. While the crew has access to the latest technology and radio quickly for help, that help is slow in coming, and in the meantime, it becomes obvious that not only do they not have enough lifeboats on hand for the passengers, the lifeboats are being loaded more with regard for social status than any other consideration.
An Early Frost
- Director: John Erman
- Release Date: 1985
- Production Country: United States
A young lawyer tests positive for AIDS, forcing revelations both to and by his family and colleagues, as both he and those around him struggle to come to grips with the fact that there is no cure for what is slowly killing him.
And the Band Played On
- Director: Roger Spottiswoode
- Release Date: 1993
- Production Country: United States
The unexplained deaths of gay men in the United States's large gay communities catch the attention of a virologist, who finds his investigations into the epidemic hampered by uncaring politicians, jealous researchers, and, at times, by the gay community itself.
Beat the Drum
- Director: David Hickson
- Release Date: 2003
- Production Country: South Africa, United States
Orphaned by the AIDS epidemic that has stricken his village, young Musa takes his father's drum and heads for Johannesburg in search of his uncle. While Musa finds life in the city strange and bewildering, when he returns to his village, Musa brings a new understanding to share with his people.
Black Death
- Director: Christopher Smith
- Release Date: 2010
- Production Country: Germany, United Kingdom
Uncertain of his vows, a young monk volunteers to guide a knight and his men in their search for a village said to house the necromancer who is responsible for the plague decimating the countryside, setting the stage for a showdown between gods old and new, in a battle where the winners are not always easy to tell from the losers.
Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal)
- Director: Ingmar Bergman
- Release Date: 1957
- Production Country: Sweden
Returning home from the Crusades to a land ravaged by plague, a Knight decides to redeem the futility of his life with one meaningful deed, but when Death arrives before he can accomplish this task, he challenges the Grim Reaper to a chess match, a game that is played out as chaos and violence consumes everything and everyone around them, each moment reducing ever further the knight's chances of redemption.
Ebola: The Plague Fighters (Ebola: Inside an Outbreak)
- Director: Ric Esther Bienstock
- Release Date: 1996
- Production Country: United States
A virulent outbreak of a hemorrhagic fever in Africa leads to the discovery of one of the deadliest diseases known: the Ebola virus. First documented in Africa in the mid-1970s, the disease is rare but frightening in its destructive capability. This documentary looks at the history of the original discovery, then focuses on an outbreak in Zaire where three-quarters of those infected died.
Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompeii)
- Director: Mario Bonnard, Sergio Leone
- Release Date: 1959
- Production Country: Italy, Spain, West Germany
The city of Pompeii is in the grip of a troubling crime wave, blamed by most residents on the local Christians. Glaucus, fresh from defeating a crocodile in a watery pit, discovers that the spoils from the crime spree are intended to finance a rebellion against Rome, but before he can prove anything, he and the Christians are thrown to the lions—at which point Mount Vesuvius erupts.
Influenza 1918
- Director: Robert Kenner
- Release Date: 1998
- Production Country: United States
In 1918, one army private in Kansas reported to the medical unit with what turned out to be the flu, or influenza. And then it spread. By the end of the epidemic, 650,000 had died in the United States alone—mostly young, healthy adults. Before it was over, the influenza epidemic swept through the entire world, killing anywhere from 50 – 100 million people.
K-19: The Widowmaker
- Director: Kathryn Bigelow
- Release Date: 2002
- Production Country: United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Canada
Russia launches its first nuclear submarine to great fanfare, but when the submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the captain isn't just concerned about saving his crew—he risks touching off a nuclear war if he cannot prevent the disastrous meltdown of his nuclear power core.
Khaneh siah ast (The House Is Black)
- Director: Forugh Farrokhzad
- Release Date: 1963
- Production Country: Iran
Life in an Iranian leper colony is as harsh as the disease itself, but the integrity of the human spirit cannot be destroyed—even by this disfiguring disease.
Miss Evers' Boys
- Director: Joseph Sargent
- Release Date: 1997
- Production Country: United States
Recruited to help with a health study focused on poor black sharecroppers, Nurse Eunice Rivers starts off assisting the doctors but eventually becomes instrumental in the program. Eunice befriends many of the men involved but never reveals the truth to them: they have syphilis for which they are not being treated—they are simply being studied "in the name of science."
Pandemic: Facing AIDS
- Director: Rory Kennedy
- Release Date: 2003
- Production Country: United States
Five different nations, five different stories, one disease, and one result. Five different families, one each in Russia, India, Brazil, Uganda, and Thailand, provide human faces and realities to the devastating impact of AIDS upon the world.
Pompeii: Back from the Dead
- Director: Paul Elston, Steffan Boje
- Release Date: 2011
- Production Country: United Kingdom
Contrary to public perception, the eruption of Vesuvius was not a one-day event, but a disaster with upheaval that preceded the volcanic eruption. The eruption and plumes of ashes wreaked havoc on the area and its inhabitants, especially since the lifestyles of the people in the city may have precluded them from responding to the danger in time.
Pompeii: The Last Day
- Director: Peter Nicholson
- Release Date: 2003
- Production Country: United Kingdom, Spain
Based on archaeological excavations and extrapolation based on locations where various victims were found, the events in the lives of several residents of Pompei and Herculaneum—just before the eruption of Vesuvius—are dramatized.
Si le vent soulève les sables (Sounds of Sand)
- Director: Marion Hänsel
- Release Date: 2005
- Production Country: France, Belgium
When the village wells dry up due to drought, one small family sets out across the desert to find a reliable water source. But as they search, the family struggles to survive not only the desert, but also the human violence and other dangers created by the long drought and the ever-shifting sands.
St. Helens (St. Helens, Killer Volcano)
- Director: Ernest Pintoff
- Release Date: 1981
- Production Country: United States
After an earthquake disrupts the peaceful countryside in the Cascades, a U.S. geologist is sent to Mt. St. Helens to investigate. As the geologist monitors the increasingly active volcano, the concerned residents debate evacuation orders—except for one man, 83-year-old Harry Truman, who sees no need to bow before the mountain which has shadowed his life for so many years.
The Hindenburg
- Director: Robert Wise
- Release Date: 1975
- Production Country: United States
German officials refuse to let sabotage threats stop the Hindenberg, the flagship of Germany's biggest line of zeppelins. The airship's scheduled transatlantic flight takes off, leaving two German officers to do their best during the flight to investigate, determine which of the passengers is their potential saboteur, and prevent the sabotage from destroying the ship and its passengers.
The Last Days of Pompeii
- Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack
- Release Date: 1935
- Production Country: United States
When his adopted son is healed by a strange carpenter, Marcus is grateful—but not so grateful he is going to help rescue the man from crucifixion, no matter how unjust the sentence. Years later, Marcus's own son is unjustly condemned to death in the arena, but Mount Vesuvius erupts too late to provide enough of a distraction to save him, although Marcus can still help save other people's sons, if he is willing to try.
The Painted Veil
- Director: John Curran
- Release Date: 2006
- Production Country: China, United States, Canada
Forced to accompany her husband, Walter, when he travels to a remote Chinese village stricken by cholera, Kit's misery seems complete. When Kit volunteers to teach music where Walter works in a local orphanage, their marriage-of-convenience slowly develops into something more, but as the cholera epidemic rages, their mutual efforts may be too little, too late.