How to Survive a Plague [HD]

The Rise Of The AIDS Crisis
I was a nurse during the early days of AIDS. I remember young men dying and not being able to find a funeral home that would take the body. I remember the feeling of helpless as a nurse, no real treatment for my patients, family was rare, other students and health care personnel would try and avoid these people as if they had the plague. Well, yes, indeed, they did have a plague, and no one was doing anything to help, it seemed.

This is a film about the activists in the Gay Community, who gathered to fight this disease that was taking their lovers, friends and community. Act Up with Larry Kramer was loud and proud. They forced pharmaceutical companies to start working for medications, the Government to listen and care,,and the population who were doing nothing. Essentially Larry Kramer and his fellow men fought the plague, while most everyone else stood around and looked.

This was a horrible time, President Reagan disavowed all knowledge. Thousands of men were...

It's About Time!
This documentary by David France explores the early advent of AIDS, its impact on "Ground Zero" (in Greenwich Village), and the birth of the gay advocacy groups ACT UP and TAG.

Of course, given the topic, we know that many of those attractive, articulate and intelligent men we meet will be dead by the time the final credits run, but it is endlessly fascinating to see how smart the activists were and how quickly they learned everything they had to know in order to have credibility with the US FDA and with Big Pharma. They actually wrote the protocol for testing that surprised the federal agency with its professionalism and ease of application.

There are meetings in which the activists learn the art of the "sound bite" and are reminded to be passive and polite but express their outrage to any media in the area. It shows the ads they sponsored attacking President George H. W. Bush, it shows a defensive Bill Clinton dressing down an activist and surprisingly, it...

An Exemplary (And Oscar Nominated) Living History Of Activism In The Age Of AIDS
It hadn't been that long since I sat down with David Weissman's stirring documentary about the early days of AIDS in San Francisco "We Were Here." And truthfully, I wasn't sure I wanted to partake of the similarly themed "How To Survive A Plague" quite so soon afterwards. I'm glad that I didn't listen to myself! This Oscar nominated feature by David France is like a living history, an important chronicle filmed throughout the eighties and nineties by those on the front lines of the crisis. While "We Were Here" is personal and stirring, "How To Survive A Plague" is epic and challenging. Based almost entirely in New York City, the film explores the activism and unwavering commitment of those who simply could not stay quiet as an epidemic was being compartmentalized by the nation and its leaders. What is so incredibly powerful about France's documentary is how relevant and vital it feels. This was history in-the-making within my lifetime, and this film maintains an unparalleled...

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