AIDS documentary is as inspirational as it is upsetting
Last year was a devastating one for Canadians who give the slightest of shits about people living with HIV/AIDS. Let’s quickly review the damage.
Bill C-10 was passed part of which redirected harm reduction efforts towards harsher penalties for drug use. The Supreme Court declared that people living with HIV will be convicted of aggravated sexual assault if they don’t tell partners about the virus. The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network lost federal funding. Then in a shocking finale the Conservatives shot down legislation that would have eased regulations surrounding the distribution of AIDS medication in developing countries.
Following dozens of such public policy actions it’d be easy to give up hope because really our government isn’t going anywhere any time soon. But all of those depressing realities help make How to Survive a Plague one of the most important and perhaps even most encouraging documentaries released of late. It should be considered vital source material for the future resistance to more budget cuts and paternalistic health legislation. While being all that it’s one hell of a well-made film.
As suggested by the title the subject matter is astonishingly tragic. How to Survive a Plague tells the story of AIDS activists in New York City who were literally fighting for their lives during the late ’80s and early ’90s some of the worst years of the cataclysmic epidemic. Hospitals were rejecting desperately ill patients the FDA was dragging its feet and conservative politicians were blaming the gays. A diagnosis was considered incurable. Millions were dying globally. It was hell on Earth but it’d be tough to tell by the lackadaisical approach the U.S. Congress was taking to it.
Filmmaker David France compiled a staggering amount of archived footage — upwards of 700 hours — allowing him to craft a piece that captured the brutality despair and frustration. Shots linger for far longer than most filmmakers would allow. A subtle yet gripping score augments already tragic scenes. Characters become relatable. It’s difficult not to weep when they die one by one. It’s magnificent editing ensuring a complex narrative arc.
But France has stated that “this isn’t a movie about what AIDS did to us this is a movie about what we did to AIDS.” That sentiment made all the difference. Many viewers will be at least aware of the utter destruction that AIDS ravages on the undefended body. Fewer will know about the shitstorm that the legendary activists raised to ensure that they would receive equal treatment. The footage of said shitstorming is jaw-dropping.
Members from the two organizations that the film focuses on — ACT UP and later TAG a research-focused offshoot of the former — used direct action in ways that we simply haven’t seen recently: A “kiss-in” in the lobby of a hospital that was denying treatment to patients dying of AIDS; lying down in the aisles of a Catholic church service protesting the institution’s condemnation of condoms; pouring the ashes of the dead on the lawn of the White House; heckling future president Bill Clinton; somehow covering a bigoted senator’s home with a giant inflatable condom.
It’s these kinds of visuals that distinguish How to Survive a Plague from a Wikipedia entry on the history of HIV/AIDS. Everything about the film is placed to ensure that hope — as ridiculous as the concept might seem in the midst of it all — is present. This isn’t just a movie about history. It’s a call to arms of sorts. The work for activists is clearly not over a theme reinforced by sobering statistics displayed at the end of the film. But through this documentary we’ve been handed the ideas the anger and ultimately the inspiration to keep fighting. It’s quite an accomplishment.
