"Blame" – when the only critical words about Shi Zhengli and Peter Daszak come from a Chinese journalist.💥
Jane Qiu visibly feels uncomfortable. It seems to her as if she is participating in propaganda, she says'
In contrast, Variety has a surrealist article:
"Oscar-nominated Swiss director Christian Frei began to experience a feeling that “those who warned us would eventually be the ones who are blamed.
This sentiment, which he calls an “epiphany,” is at the heart of “Blame”.
For the inside story, Frei contacted Daszak at end of 2020, to discuss a film project (initially called 'Host').
Shi Zhengli and Linfa Wang, as well as Quammen, were looped in Sep 2020.
Then the cast of Daszak, the great Markolin (!!), Jane Qiu, Linfa Wang, Supaporn, was put in place by 2 Dec 2022.
@emilyakopp @R_H_Ebright @janeqiuchina @NZZWissen
2022 was when travel was easier, and the filming was able to proceed.
👉🏻 The operation was part of the 'Positive engagement strategy' of Daszak.
@JaEsf @Tantalite @NolwennLF @zeynep
👉🏻 That strategy included trips for journalists in fall 2022, at a time when Daszak had a problem with poached Lao samples that ended up in Latinne et al.
A proposed Addendum did not work out, resulting in a retraction/republication which wiped out the intermediate peer-reviews.
More details of the filming in 2022. and post-production in 2023.
Also:
👉🏻 25 Feb 2023: 'whatsapp christian [Frei] and philip [Markolin?] re. filming the man who loved China, the hare with the golden eye' [some heavy references here]
👉🏻 Frei visited EHA offices in April 2023. @NZZWissen
When Daszak became a 'martyr', the name was changed from 'Host' to 'Blame'.
Quite a bit of a love-fest. Complete lack of distance to the subject.
Using one's brain instead of one's political emotions would have resulted in a better documentary, not a soapy propaganda piece.
Worobey is working on a paper showing that the epicenter is a taberna close to the lab.
Holmes has a photo of a well-wined evening there, which he will turn into a paper too.
Places like that are clear zoonotic disasters in the making.
All [ASF] viruses currently circulating in the Member States belong to genetic groups 2-28 and not to the new genetic group 29 to which the virus causing the outbreak in the province of Barcelona belongs - very similar to genetic group 1 that circulated in Georgia in 2007. mapa.gob.es/es/prensa/ulti…
Good luck to the Daszak in suing EHA (through its board of directors) for a total of $4mln.
He is a debarred fraud, likely linked to one of the most destructive events of the last 100 years, who racked millions at EHA, and enjoyed the high life in its colonial revival villa in upstate NY, not far from his favourite ski fields.
@CD57227 @JanKlimkowski @Florin_Uncovers @DavRoeck @R_H_Ebright @emilyakopp @zeynep Your link does not work unfortunately. Can you give one that works?
Quite a few foundations there (Stiftungen).
@CD57227 @JanKlimkowski @Florin_Uncovers @DavRoeck @R_H_Ebright @emilyakopp @zeynep - Schweizerische Eidgenossenschat, Bundesamt für Kultur (BAK) (some funding if 10% is shot in Switzerland)
- Zürcher Filmstiftung
- Stiftung Volkart
- UBS Kulturstiftung
- Stiftung Corymbo
- Ernst Göhner Stiftung
@CD57227 @JanKlimkowski @Florin_Uncovers @DavRoeck @R_H_Ebright @emilyakopp @zeynep Zürcher Filmstiftung
CHF 60,000 to develop the project, on 16Mar 2021: filmstiftung.ch/die-forderung/…
@CD57227 @DavRoeck @Florin_Uncovers More details. Daszak had a work/vacation at end Oct 2022 during which he went top What Khao Ching Pan, but that was before the filming.
The filming occurred during the first two weeks of December.
Note that Daszak went vi Zurich and shared the flight to Bangkok with Markolin.
He often does that for key people: Farrar from Geneva to London in Feb 2020, Koopmans from Wuhan to Amsterdam after the 2021 WHO mission, etc.
@ebright @JanKlimkowski @Tantalite
@CD57227 @DavRoeck @Florin_Uncovers One key point is that Daszak was taking some journalists in a SEA trip at that very time, to gather support (especially related to his poached Lao samples problems with Latinne et al).