On the Ground in an Ebola Outbreak

image

All photos courtesy Associated Producers

By  James Joiner 

Twenty years ago, documentary filmmaker Ric Esther Bienstock raced across continents to cover a massive Ebola outbreak in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In an age before digital cameras and widespread Internet and cell phone usage, she toiled for long weeks alongside a battery of international doctors and a gaggle of news media that wasn’t as keen to get their hands dirty as she was. The resulting film, the award-winning Ebola: Inside An Outbreak, has been shown world-wide and become a part of PBS’ Nova series, and is perhaps the most intense and personal look at the sort of outbreak that is happening today. We talked to her about what it was like to be so close to so much death, and how much—or little—the situation has changed from then to now.

RELATED: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EBOLA

You know Glenn Close, the actress? Her dad, William Close, was actually a doctor in Zaire during that first outbreak; he was Mobutu’s doctor. He had given me a lot of information for Plague Monkeys. He called me and said, “You’re not going to believe this, but there’s an outbreak right now.” And I said, “A real outbreak? I’m in.” It was three weeks after my honeymoon.

I thought it was a great story. How do you stop an acute outbreak of the world’s deadliest virus—that’s how it was characterized at the time—in an environment where there’s no electricity, no running water, no newspapers, no radios? It’s not only a medical challenge, it’s a social challenge. And that’s exactly what’s still happening now.

RELATED: WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE THE EBOLA VIRUS

image

I worked very hard to find a crew – I had to get on a plane right away, and nobody wanted to go, obviously. Getting in was hard, too. You’re just trying to work connections. It’s not like getting a permit to shoot on the streets of New York, it’s more like how many people’s hands want to be greased.

I told everybody, “I don’t know if we’re going to be quarantined when we get back, I don’t know where we’re sleeping, I don’t know where we’re eating.” It was one of those, “You’re either into it, or you’re not.” We’re going to Kikwit, Zaire. There’s no Sheratons there.

image

I remember getting in this rickety plane with these crusty ex-pats, and half the plane—this old Russian airplane that hadn’t been maintained in forever—and one side of the plane was covered in this burlap and netting. I peaked under it, and it was full of cash. The entire plane was full of cash. The whole scene was very incredible.

We stuck around for five weeks. I stayed until the end of the outbreak, and that’s how we got the access. There was one guy, I think from CNN, who slipped and scraped his elbow trying to get into the Ebola ward, it caused a big kerfuffle. It was just sheer dint of the fact that I knew a lot about Ebola, was very respectful of the scientists… Once they realized I wasn’t trying to do a quick piece for the 6 o’clock news, and just get some shots of people dying, there’s just a measure of trust. That’s how I managed to get into the Ebola ward, and we were the only people who got in.

image

Getting inside the Ebola ward was devastating. It was devastating seeing those people just lying there and how hopeless they were. In hospitals like that, there’s no food, there’s no one changing the bed sheets. The family members are often camped out outside the hospital, and they make food on fires for their sick family members, and there’s this community out there. And I would find some powdered milk and I would start bringing it in. You have a relationship with those people, and because we’re a foreign crew, and we’re white, they’re always looking to us for some wisdom or hope. And that I found hard, you know? You want to be very respectful, and you also want to get your story.

RELATED: EBOLA-ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THE ONGOING NIGHTMARE

It’s funny: It’s hard to explain what it’s like shooting really horrific stuff. In the moment, I saw so many people in emotional pain and so many dead bodies; or finding someone, or filming someone who is sure they are gonna die, seeing blood in the corners of their eyes… I’m just a regular person who lives in suburban Canada. What’s amazing is the capacity to just keep doing it.

Sometimes at night I was stressed, and thought, “How am I gonna do this?” But emotionally facing all the death, it really happened when I came back more than when I was there. Where I actually broke down was in the editing suite. That was the first time I allowed myself to actually take in the images I’d shot. I just started bawling.

We were so entrenched in that world that we were finding bodies. It was such an intense scene, it was very hot, people were dying, there were a lot of cultural issues about burial practices. It was hard to spread the word. The World Health Organization teams, after two weeks, they would go and send another team in, it was so intense. And because I was always everywhere, when a new WHO guy came, the outgoing one asked me to brief him on what was going on.

I had to switch cameramen. He said he had to go, he got another gig, I was like, “How did you get another gig, there’s not even telephones here!”

In terms of contact, I can’t say I was worried, but I was careful. When you’re filming funerals and stuff, you’re worried about stepping in the earth. We sprayed down with bleach all the time. Every time someone had a headache there was a little bit of tension. You were aware of every ache and pain. It was just about keeping a mask on my face. If you don’t come in contact with someone, it’s not that easy to get. The challenge is if someone sneezes. That was my biggest fear.

We would come across a family, and the same thing is happening now, they associate the hospital with death—and that’s correct, ‘cause most people aren’t gonna survive. So people wouldn’t bring their sick loved ones to the hospital. At worst someone would get really sick and the family would just abandon them and run off. We found some bodies and brought the Red Cross is to pick them up. I’d never seen that much death up close.

They were doing mass graves with dead bodies in body bags, sprayed down with bleach—there were a lot of protective measures to make sure it didn’t spread. Initially one of the problems in a lot of the hospitals is that, at the time anyway, they were reusing needles, and the doctors didn’t have the correct protective equipment and they were spreading the disease themselves. And I think that’s happening a little bit today, too.

I was gone for a couple hours, and I come back and there was this Australian still photographer—my cameraman had found him—and he had a bottle of whiskey or something. And when I came back they were sitting there drinking, we hadn’t shot a frame, and my cameraman looks up at me and goes, “We gotta get the fuck outta here, Ric.” And I said, “We just got here, are you kidding?”

For more, read Ebola: Inside An Outbreak. Check out Bienstock’s latest documentary, the Emmy-nominated Tales From The Organ Trade, soon on HBO.

MORE FROM ESQUIRE…

THE BESTEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM EVER

THE FIVE MOST UNUSUAL DISEASES

The Whole New Way of Curing Cancer