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HIV/AIDS Reel Life
Consider viewing some or all of the movies listed below for a variety
of views about HIV/AIDS.
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Pandemic: Facing
Aids (2003)
Acclaimed
filmmaker Rory
Kennedy puts a human face on a disease that's become a
problem of global proportions. Having affected 40 million people and
counting, HIV/AIDS has wreaked immeasurable havoc during its decades of
aggressive assault. Using images taken by famous photographers from 50
countries, Kennedy personalizes the illness, introducing viewers to the
men and women for whom the disease isn't just front-page news.
(at Netflix)
Absolutely Positive(1991)
This
documentary screened at the Sundance Film Festival explores the
heartwrenching stories of several brave souls who face life with HIV and
AIDS on a daily basis. Deftly made by filmmaker Peter Adair, who himself
passed away from AIDS in 1997, Absolutely Positive takes a frank look at
how eleven different individuals, from age 17 to 60, struggle with the
disease and their looming fate. (at Netflix)
Silverlake Life: The View From Here: 10th Anniversary
Edition(1993)
An
award-winning and touching autobiographical documentary about two gay
companions who suffer and ultimately die from AIDS. Despite the rather
grim circumstances, the film is a celebration of the human spirit and a
testament to courage (and the potent power of laughter) when facing a
fatal illness. (at Netflix)
The Fire Within(2002)
This
documentary from August Moon follows the efforts of Shawn Bowers to find
common ground with, and show her deep love for, her AIDS-afflicted
husband Bob. Stricken before they met due to a one-time decision to
share a needle with someone who, unbeknownst to him, was carrying the
virus, Bob struggles to embrace life every day -- a journey Shawn tries
to replicate by taking on a grueling 575-mile bike ride over 5 days.
(at Netflix)
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt(1989)
Rob Epstein's searing Oscar-winning documentary
profiles six people who died of AIDS, helping to put a human face to an
illness that, when this movie first aired in 1989, was cloaked in fear
and mystery. Using the AIDS Memorial Quilt as his starting point,
Epstein, with the help of narrator Dustin Hoffman's dignity and
gravitas, humanizes the disease and illustrates its carnage, showing how
it devastates families and communities. (at Netflix)
Longtime Companion(1990)
This
ensemble piece centers on a group of gay men in 1980s New York City
whose lives are changed by the puzzling new "gay cancer." The first film
to have AIDS as its main subject, Longtime Companion is a powerful mix
of historical realism and bittersweet drama. Winner of the Sundance
Audience Award and numerous supporting actor awards for Bruce Davison,
including an Oscar. (at Netflix)
After Stonewall
(1999)
Melissa
Etheridge narrates this documentary that explores the progress and
challenges of the post-Stonewall lesbian/gay rights movement through
archival footage and interviews with leaders such as Barbara Gittings,
Armistead Maupin, Jewelle Gomez and Dorothy Allison. The film chronicles
key events from 1970 to the end of the 20th century, including sexual
liberation, conflicts with the feminist movement, AIDS and political
organization. (at Netflix)
Pills Profits
Protest:
Chronicle of the Global AIDS Movement
A film by
Anne-christine d'Adesky,
Shanti Avirgan and
Ann T. Rossetti
PILLS PROFITS
PROTEST: CHRONICLE OF THE GLOBAL AIDS MOVEMENT is an up-to-the minute documentary about AIDS
treatment activism. It examines the national and international grass
roots response to an epidemic that has already overshadowed the Black
Death in terms of human lives lost. (at Outcast-Films)
Fight Back,
Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP
James Wentzy's
in-your-face FIGHT BACK, FIGHT AIDS
is a compilation of footage documenting the first ACT UP meeting in 1987
on New York
City's Wall Street and continues to
2002. (click here)
Chrissy
Breaking records as
the most watched documentary on Australian telelvision, where it first
aired on World AIDS Day in 1999, Chrissyis an honest and daring film. Ex-runaway and street kid,
Chrissy was diagnosed HIV+ at age 18. She did not reveal her sexual
orientation or her illness to her family until eight years later. As we
follow Chrissy, her mother and three younger sisters for the next year,
we are given access to a world one must see to really understand.
Beginning at the time Chrissy revealed her HIV+ status to her family,
filmmaker, Jacqui North takes us on a personal journey of a family
learning about acceptance and love. (click here)
Contact
The first of a two-part series,
Contact deals with the relationship of gay men in their twenties to
AIDS. In this revealing semi-autobiographical short, Remington
explores travel, loneliness and the emotions which cause young men to
put themselves at risk for infection. (click here)
Destroying
Angel
Destroying
Angel relates two stories of
illness and weaves them into a tapestry of family history, memory and
loss. The narrator, confronted with his own mortality, guides us
through a landscape of recollections, dreams, close friendships and
family ties. Narratives about present-day events interplay with
lyrical reminiscenses of the past. Eventually, just as the past
always informs the present, the two styles of narrative begin to merge.
In the end, we are left with a moving portrait of the struggles
involved in dealing with AIDS, cancer, memory and intimate
relationships. (click here)
No Regret (Non, Je
Ne Regrette Rien)
Through music,
poetry and quiet, at times, chilling self-disclosure, five sero-positive
black gay men speak of their individual confrontation with AIDS,
illuminating the difficult journey black men throughout America make in coping with
the personal and social devastation of the epidemic. (click here)
She's Safe!
The first-ever
program of its kind, this curated package of woman-to-woman safer sex
videos features a spicy batch of public service announcements (PSAs) and
an international sampling of smart and sexy erotic videos. (This program
contains explicit sexual imagery.) (click here)
Dead Boys'
Club, The
The Dead
Boys' Club is the story of a young man in a world haunted by the absence
of an entire generation of men that have gone before him: a generation
that he should have known but, because of AIDS, is a generation that he
can only imagine. (click here)
Time Being,
The
The Time
Being is a visually stunning, powerful meditation on one man's struggle
for survival and forgiveness after assisting with his lover's
euthanasia. (click here)
Voices From the
Front
Voices From
the Front, the first feature-length documentary on AIDS activism in
America, makes clear the
emotional and political effects of community activism using the voices
of those directly engaged. It is a powerful distillation of pictures and
words from events organized to change public consciousness, expose the
failure of the health care systems, and challenge government inaction
and neglect concerning AIDS. (click here)
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