How to Survive a Plague

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 Presi- dent George H. W. Bush, it shows a defensive Bill Clinton dressing down an activist and surprisingly, it shows Patrick Buchanan agreeing with an ACT UP spokesman as opposed to a government official.

Several pharmaceutical companies began working with them and along with a little success, came internal squabbles. In one clip, playwright/ activist Larry Kramer blasts them for their petty quarrels while "we are fighting a plague!"

Remember the AIDS quilt? The dumping of victims' ashes on the White House lawn? The Senate hearings? The Kaposi's Sarcomas? The advent of the three-way cocktail that ultimately saved thousands of lives? There is much, much more to see. I felt this 2012 Seattle International Film Festival entry was somewhat dated, but to the best of my knowledge, no one has documented the entire arc, so it's about time!

I'm happy to point out that this film is nominated for Best Documentary in the 2013 Oscars.