With news that United States President Donald Trump and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19, the upcoming documentary Totally Under Control couldn’t be more apropos.
Directed by Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney (Going Clear), along with Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger, the documentary was shot in secret over the last five months.
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The three directors interviewed “countless” scientists, medical professionals and U.S. government officials — some who put their careers on the line to speak their minds — about the dire state of the country as it faces more than 200,000 deaths of its citizens, and now, an infected president. (This piece of information obviously didn’t make it into the movie.)
Totally Under Control is an in-depth look at how the U.S. government handled the response to the COVID-19 outbreak during the early months of the pandemic, and, frankly, how it failed to act.
“With an extraordinary team of collaborators, I was compelled to mount this production when I saw the scale of incompetence and political corruption by the Trump Administration in the face of a global pandemic,” Gibney said.
“Now we know that by February 7, Trump knew that COVID was, in his words, ‘a deadly virus.’ But instead of working to protect the American people by containing the virus, the current administration was willfully blind to the growing contagion (‘It’s like a miracle; it will disappear,’ said Trump) in hopes that voters wouldn’t notice any problems until after the 2020 election.”
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“We, the scientists, knew what to do for the pandemic response,” says an expert being interviewed in the trailer. “The plan was in front of us, but leadership would not do it. It’s time to lay our careers on the line and push back.”
“It’s clear the United States did not perform to the best of its ability with the coronavirus,” said another.
“The truth is that political leaders caused avoidable death and destruction,” said yet another in the trailer.
Totally Under Control will be available to rent or own across all digital and on-demand platforms in early October. (Date not yet confirmed)