January 2012 Archives

I got the chance to see AIDS activism wow a crowd at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, during the premiere of HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE on Sunday. Garance Franke-Ruta and Ron Goldberg, veterans of ACT UP New York, were also able to attend. In a spooky coincidence, it was the 20th anniversary of the day TAG, the Treatment Action Group, was formed. TAG's early work is prominently featured in the documentary.

Seeing it on a big screen kinda blew my mind, and judging by the audience response (two standing ovations), I wasn't alone. I can't walk ten feet in this town without someone wanting to talk about the impact the film had on them. Most (especially those under 45 years old), had never heard about this history before, and it deeply moved them. They also thought the film had many lessons for today's activist movements, including Occupy Wall Street.

Director David France and his team should be very proud of doing the near impossible -- carefully honoring a remarkable moment in history that could fill dozens of books (and hopefully will). Many of those we lost and loved appear in the film, and can now be remembered again. As the late Bob Rafsky put it so eloquently during an amazing scene in the film, "when the living can no longer speak, the dead may speak for them."

In December, 2008, a journalist named David France came over to my Brooklyn apartment and told me about his dream of making a documentary that honored the history he witnessed of AIDS treatment activism in the late 80's and early 90's. From the heady-optimism of ACT UP's Treatment & Data Committee, to the painful split of ACT UP & TAG (the Treatment Action Group) just as the plague years were at their worst in the U.S., and finally to the remarkable research breakthroughs that made the death rate decline by 70%.

Three years later, David's film is done, and will be premiering at Sundance in Park City, Utah this Sunday. I finally got to see it Tuesday afternoon at a screening with David Barr, Sam Avrett, Gregg Gonsalves, and Catherine Gund. David France and his entire crew, including Joy Tomchin, Howard Gertler, Dan Cogan, Woody, Tyler, and seemingly dozens of others, should be incredibly proud. HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE honors this remarkable slice of history.

First things first -- doing justice to the entire history of AIDS activism, including the inspiring international work of today, would take a miniseries -- make that a megaseries -- lasting at least 30 hours long. Even then, there would be thousands of important stories left out. This medium -- film -- just can't capture it all. France's 100 minute documentary is just a small slice of this history. But there's no doubting that slice's significance, and as importantly, its potential to inspire others.

I found it almost impossible to view the film objectively. It brought me back to those years like nothing else I've seen (how could it not, since France decided to portray a handful of personal story arcs, including mine). Amazing found footage of early ACT UP meetings on Monday nights at The Center captured the wild mix of camaraderie, joy, anger, and empowerment that made us the epicenter of Gay America in the late 80's, and for all Americans, the social movement of its day. It took thousands of deaths before we were angry enough to hit the streets, and I remain amazed by the movement's resilience during the carnage that followed.

I suspect that this film will reopen old wounds for some from the infighting that led to T&Ds split from ACT UP, and the founding of TAG. We largely fell into two camps at the time, and for the most part, the film tells the story of those on just one side of that divide. But any story focused on treatment activism will never capture ACT UP's expansive body of work. I eagerly await Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman's UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT-UP, which will begin to fill out this history even more.

Both of these films have a huge wall of resistance to climb - sadly, most folks don't want to hear about AIDS these days, even most gay folks. That said, in this day and age, they are desperate for some inspiration, and for stories about people telling truth to power, and changing history for the better.

HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE does this. See it.

First, there is WE WERE HERE, a highly moving retelling of what it was like in San Francisco when the crisis hit. Folks are betting that it will get nominated for the Oscars later this month, and possibly even win for best documentary. Then there's VITO, about the life of Vito Russo, one of my heroes during the ACT UP years. It's making the rounds at film festivals right now. There's also great buzz about UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT-UP, which is in final editing by Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman, and should premier in New York soon.

And finally, Sundance recently announced the 16 documentaries selected for its film festival starting late next week, out of about 1,000 films submitted. One of them is David France's HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, described as "the untold story of the intensive efforts that turned AIDS into a manageable condition - and the improbable group of (mostly HIV-positive) young men and women whose amazing resilience broke through a time of rampant death and political indifference."

Yours truly was interviewed for this one, and I can't wait to see the final film. I've only seen some short clips thus far, and it looks very powerful. I'm flying out to Park City, Utah to see the premiere, and join the Q&A afterwards. It's my sincere hope that this small flood of AIDS docs will teach younger generations about those remarkable and surreal early years, and inspire future activists for all the work that still needs doing.

Here's David France talking about his film: