Ms. Information

Last Sunday evening, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the world premiere of Ms. Information at the Auckland International Film Festival. OK, that sounds a little more grandiose than it was - we purchased tickets like most other people in the audience.

Ms. Information is a New Zealand documentary, directed by Gwen Isaac, that was made during the early stages of the COVID pandemic. It mainly follows events surrounding Siouxsie Wiles and her involvement in science communication globally. It's a fly-on-the-wall style documentary, but also features interviews with Siouxsie, and also her husband Steven and teenaged daughter Eve. I previously reported on a short documentary called Siouxsie & the Virus by Loading Docs, also made by Gwen Isaaac. That's also worth a watch.

Here's the trailer:

Trailer for Ms. Information

As many readers will know, Siouxsie is a great friend of NZ Skeptics, having given talks at several conferences - the last one being in 2022. She has worked avidly in the science communication field which she sees as part and parcel of her professional career as an academic scientist and researcher (heading up the Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland).

The film did not hold back on the unfortunate controversies surrounding Siouxsie, showing many of the personal attacks she was subject to on Twitter, and via email and voice-mail messages. Some of these were pretty shocking in their content and threatening tone. The film showed content from people we've unfortunately become familiar with in our newsletter writings - characters such as Billy Te Kahika, Vinny Eastwood, and Damien DeMent - all of whom were making some pretty awful threats against her, or inciting others to do so. What I did miss from the film was any of the female agitators from Voices for Freedom, but it seems that they were working more behind the scenes, insidiously introducing their various anti-vax and politically far-right talking points to gullible kiwis.

Siouxsie describes herself as a “fat, middle-aged woman, with pink hair”, which aligns with the many personal attacks she was subjected to. She gave over 2,000 interviews during the first year of the pandemic, often being up at ungodly hours to talk to journalists on the other side of the world.

My wife and I are good friends with Siouxsie and Steven, and have seen their daughter, Eve, grow up from a very shy child into the confident young woman displayed in the film. But the film was very revealing, and it turns out we knew of only a small fraction of what was going on, and is still continuing to this day.

The film also touches on the legal issues around employer responsibilities for protecting their staff from harm when doing their jobs, showing Siouxsie meeting with a lawyer to discuss the situation. Funding of science in New Zealand is also shown for the difficult state it's in. Indeed, the film revealed that a large portion of the funding for Siouxsie's Superbugs Lab is from talks that Siouxsie has given in a corporate setting - where companies have been able to pay a fee for her talk - which Siouxsie has then used for her lab work. Wouldn't it be amazing if science could be properly funded so scientists could focus on the science rather than on writing grant applications.

While the film shows many of the negative aspects of Siouxsie's life during the pandemic, it also features some joyful aspects, such as her multiple awards - including the 2020 Women of Influence Awards and the 2021 New Zealander of the Year Award. Also recorded was Siouxsie's tearful reaction to the announcement made by then-Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern, of the level 4 lockdown, which shut down the chains of community transmission, allowing New Zealand to be COVID-free for a significant period before vaccines were introduced. I also liked the scenes showing the fun people had at the Splore Festival, and the brief positive comments by people about how they were grateful for Siouxsie's work and communication.

The film is beautifully made and a recommended, if challenging, watch for all skeptics, though how widely it will be released is yet to be seen.