Award-winning artist, writer, and filmmaker Mariam Ghani presents The Fire This Time, a short film that examines centuries of data to provide perspective on the recent wave of global pandemics. The film weaves together three historical events—cholera, the third plague, and the 1918 influenza pandemic—to draw comparisons with COVID-19. These epidemics resulted in significant societal changes, social unrest, and substantial loss of life, prompting reflection on the lessons to be learned from history.
Through a blend of archival imagery and non-archival footage, The Fire This Time explores human behavior over time, highlighting the link between public health crises and social upheaval. The film features insights from voices like science journalist Sonia Shah, poet and scholar Anjuli Raza Kolb, medical anthropologist Christos Lynteris, and epidemiologist Keiji Fukuda, among others. It has been showcased at festivals such as BlackStar Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, and the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival.
Mariam Ghani’s work delves into themes of language, migration, and memory, with her films having been screened at prominent festivals including the Berlinale and Rotterdam. Her debut feature-length documentary, What We Left Unfinished, premiered at the 2019 Berlinale and was later released in the US and on the Criterion Channel. Her follow-up feature, Dis-Ease, examining the impact of our perceptions of disease, debuted at the Tate Modern in 2024.
Watch The Fire This Time now at fieldofvision.org. Field of Vision is a documentary unit that fosters the creation of nonfiction films and series focusing on ongoing global stories.
