We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918

2010 TV-PG 56m 6.4

We meet individuals from marginalized communities who describe what it was like to live through the 1918 flu pandemic. Their experiences raise questions about the pandemic: why did it kill so many people? Why were so many of the dead young...

We meet individuals from marginalized communities who describe what it was like to live through the 1918 flu pandemic. Their experiences raise questions about the pandemic: why did it kill so many people? Why were so many of the dead young adults? Where did this lethal flu come from? How can we keep a pandemic like that from occurring again? The film follows the search for answers from an expedition to Alaska in 1951 to collect tissue from bodies buried in the permafrost, to the scientists and epidemiologists working on the same questions today. It explains the relevance of research into the 1918 pandemic to the threat of current and future flu pandemics.

We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918 background

Info about We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918

Studio(s): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Originally Released: Jan 15, 2010

Budget: $200,000.00

Genres: Documentary