Rollout

Rollout is a journey alongside residents of a tight-knit Kenyan community, as they face mounting pressure from a government they don’t trust, to get a Covid-19 vaccine they fear may cause more harm than good.
by
Year Released
2024
Film Length(s)
16 mins
Closed captioning available
Remote video URL

Introduction

Rollout traces residents of a tight-knit Kenyan community - including Laureen, a mother and immunization nurse - as they face mounting pressure from a government they don’t trust, to get a vaccine they suspect may cause more harm than good.

Featured review

Rollout provides a poignant look at vaccine hesitancy within communities, offering a human perspective that's both enlightening and essential for understanding public health challenges.
George Osoro Momanyi
Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence Hub, World Health Organization; Former Partnerships Lead, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Synopsis

Rollout is a journey alongside residents of a tight-knit Kenyan community, as they face mounting pressure from a government they don’t trust, to get a Covid-19 vaccine they fear may cause more harm than good.

The movie is a journey alongside residents of a Kibera, Nairobi - including Laureen, a mother and immunization nurse. Through Rollout, we seek to show a vivid picture of the powerful and complex narratives and lived experiences driving the “shadow pandemic of vaccine hesitancy" which delayed vaccine uptake across communities worldwide, and ultimately stymied humanity’s chance to achieve global herd immunity.

As the rollout efforts expand countywide, Laureen and her fellow healthcare workers visit with vibrant community members - from a church pastor to a radio DJ - who share their perspectives on the vaccination efforts. Through their stories, we feel their visceral mistrust, seemingly sparked by the government’s deeply unpopular and aggressive early pandemic response, and further fueled by a relentless flood of misinformation and conspiracy theories. We explore the deeper historical context that further exacerbates this mistrust, namely the fraught relationship between community members and global health actors, and a global vaccination agenda designed by global institutions that are disconnected from the needs of Kibera's residents.

Reviews

(Rollout) nicely depicts the realities of vaccine hesitancy and fake news and emphasizes the importance of working closely with communities to prevent and counter these forces that can result in needless disease and death.
Michael Merson
Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Global Health, Duke University; Founding Director, Duke Global Health Institute; COVID Global Accountability Platform
Created through interviews that narrate vaccine distribution in Kibera, Rollout is a rich source of authentic human perspectives.... This isn’t a story about the big-picture of immunization logistics and goals, but rather how real people in an African community reckoned with the choice to become vaccinated.
Abbey B. Lewis
STEM Engagement Librarian, University of Colorado Boulder, Educational Media Reviews Online
Rollout takes a deeply empathetic character-driven approach to help audiences understand how and why vaccine hesitancy can take root in a community.
Jenny Raskin
Executive Director, Impact Partners Film
Rollout provides a global perspective to understanding the power dynamics behind vaccine hesitancy through the lens of a humanizing and keenly told story.
Social Change International Film Festival

Awards and Screenings

Winner, Best Healthcare Film, Social Impact Film Festival 2023
Award Nominee, African Film Festival Atlanta 2023
Exceptional Merit, Documentaries Without Borders Film Festival 2023
Official Selection, Brooklyn Film Festival 2023
Official Selection, ARTS x SDG Festival 2023

Director Commentary

Essential global health efforts, like pandemic response, require an exceptional level of coordination and cooperation to inoculate communities faster than disease can spread. But what happens when communities lose trust in the institutions - and medicines - that are supposed to protect them?

I was motivated to create Rollout because, as a global health director working on the front lines of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, I saw that a missing part of the story was how people in communities actually understood vaccines and the institutions that distribute them. Along with Kristen Schlott, my fellow executive producer, Danny Abel (director), and Kevin Madegwa (producer), we sought to share the perspectives of people rather than the powerful. Good intentions are not enough.

Features and Languages

Film Features

  • Closed Captioning
  • Subtitles

Film/Audio Languages

  • English
  • Kiswahili

Subtitle/Caption Languages

  • English

Promotional Material

Promotional Stills

Resources for Educators

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