‘How to Survive a Pandemic’ Director David France: ‘I Despaired for America’ When COVID Swept the Country

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias From the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker David France (“How to Survive a Plague”) could sense the scale of the threat looming on the horizon.

A long-time health reporter who has spent decades documenting the battle against HIV and AIDS, he also knew that it would be up to science to lead the world from the brink of an unprecedented human catastrophe.The race to develop and rollout a COVID-19 vaccine has been the defining story of recent memory, and it was the director’s need to document “the great unseen work” performed in laboratories across the world that led to his latest feature, “How to Survive a Pandemic.” “This is the largest scientific undertaking of our lifetimes,” France tells Variety, “and it deserved to be chronicled.” “How to Survive a Pandemic,” which world premieres this week at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the world’s response to COVID-19 told through the eyes of leading scientists, lawmakers, activists, healthcare workers, and everyday figures on the pandemic’s frontlines.

An HBO documentary produced by Public Square Films in association with Impact Partners and Sandbox Films, the film is written and directed by France and produced by Mira Chang, and will debut in the U.S.

on HBO and HBO Max.An aspiring reporter from Kalamazoo, Michigan, France moved to New York City in 1981, where he began covering the fight against HIV and AIDS, an epidemic whose early years he chronicled in his Academy Award-nominated 2012 documentary “How to Survive a Plague.” The relationships he cultivated among scientists and health administration officials – many of whom would become key figures in the race for a.