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Early in 2020, as Isaac was heading to Japan to make a film about a New Zealand mixed martial arts fighter, COVID-19 hit. A fortuitous meeting enabled her to shift focus to making a short documentary about microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles. Once she completed the short documentary Siouxsie & the Virus, the filming continued throughout 2020 and 2021. Wiles and her family generously permitted Isaac to document Wiles’ intense efforts to educate and inform Aotearoa New Zealand’s team of 5 million. In so doing, Isaac and Wiles also recorded the abuse Wiles continued to experience as a reaction to her science communication efforts.

The intimate, observational and participatary documentary film style gently brings the viewer into the overlap between Wiles’ science communication mahi and her personal life. We see a scientist deeply committed to her research, to communicating scientific knowledge to the wider public, and to the overall state of public health. She genuinely wants to educate people, but – more so – desperately wants to save lives during arguably the most disruptive global pandemic in over a century.

Isaac’s mastery allows the audience a behind-the-scenes lens into the science communication that informed our ‘team of 5 million’ about viruses, exponential spreading and best management practices. Isaac’s lens also exposes another side of our national team, one of misogyny, anti-science and ignorance-based fear. The film comes with a warning: “All the threats in this film are real.” Isaac’s focus though balances the scales in the film to emphasise the strength of Wiles, her family and our country overall.

Only published this year, the considerable and immediate impact already comes through in the ways viewers respond to it. Film critic Graeme Tuckett reports in the Sunday Star-Times (7 July 2024) he witnessed “standing ovations and a few people quite happily crying their eyes out” at multiple screenings.

When asked about their top 2 takeaways from seeing Ms. Information, viewers reported learning about how important science communication is and the need to support that communication. They recognised that women need to be brave to make a difference, and we’re lucky to have those brave women. Some viewers acknowledged that scared people look for a scapegoat, and women are more likely to receive hate than men if they are bravely making a difference.

When asked what the documentary revealed to them about the country’s current culture, some were surprised about how nasty people can be and how much more diverse and complex it is than they thought prior.

Ms. Information also compelled some viewers to change their own behaviours, specifically online and towards women, as well as provided a mirror to other women’s experiences. Viewers felt a call to action in being more courageous in standing up against online abuse and violence and being more supportive and less judgmental.

The full impact of the documentary is yet to be felt. Viewing has so far been limited to festival screenings and renting it online at AroVision and DocPlay. In time, we will be able to look back and reflect honestly on what happened to Wiles and to all of us during those 2 scary years. Ms. Information is bound to inform us as a nation.

As for the documentary’s subject, Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles is grateful for the care and compassion with which Isaac has told her story. She hopes that the film will help people start to understand what she and her family have experienced and are still experiencing because of Wiles’ COVID-19 science communication work. But more than that, Wiles is grateful that through the film the public gets a glimpse of her amazing family without whom she wouldn’t be where she is today.