The Challenge of COVID-19 Transforms Dorothy Oliver from Ordinary People to Extraordinary Hero.
Sundance’s short ‘The Panola Project’ tracks the hero’s journey of Dorothy Oliver saving her Alabama neighbors from COVID-19.
The canned goods and snack bags fill the store shelves from one end of the wide trailer to the other. An outdoor ice machine reminds customers they’re not entering some random trailer. The trailer is the general store and de factor town center of Panola, Alabama, a rural town of 350 residents. In a community without a hospital or doctor’s office, the general store becomes the hub for locals seeking COVID-19 information and help in securing life-saving vaccines. The woman owner behind the store counter selling groceries is Dorothy Oliver, a seventy-something, retired bookkeeper who’s turned into Panola’s trusted health advisor and unexpected COVID Czar. Oliver has accepted responsibility for contract tracing the vaccinated and who still needs transportation to the nearest vaccination clinic 40 miles away. Oliver’s heroism attracts media attention, including a Sundance Festival 2022 short documentary called The Panola Project.
“We are left out,” Oliver says, speaking recently after a virtual screening of The Panola Project sponsored by OXFAM, a global organization working to end poverty. “We really need good internet in our area. We don’t even have a storm shelter. A lot of people live in mobile homes.”
Despite low resources and a high number of Coronavirus cases, Oliver continues to perform the necessary tasks. She tracks the unvaccinated, vaccinated, fully vaccinated, and boosted. She cajoles unvaccinated neighbors like Sumter County’s top grannie. Her persuasion pays off, with more than 94% of Panola residents receiving the vaccine. In a nation divided about Covid-19 vaccines, Oliver’s campaign is one for the history books.
Oliver is a genuinely ordinary person transforming into an extraordinary hero. It’s inspiring watching Oliver describe her work keeping neighbors from getting sick with humility. It’s more inspiring watching Oliver in day-to-day action in the subtle but powerful Sundance 2022…