Journalist and first-time filmmaker David France has documented that struggle in “ How To Survive A Plague,” predominantly using archival video footage shot by “ACT UP” members themselves. The group’s effort yielded a fantastic number of developments in the battle against the disease, including quickly pushing essential medication into pharamacies. Refusing to let go without a fight, a collective of Greenwich Village activists formed “ ACT UP” (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) and took to the streets, forcing the conversation to be had. Science has yet to find a cure, and without rejuvenated vigilance, transmission is on the rise – most remarkably, among young gay men who are ignorant of how AIDS activists beat back a plague, and along the way changed the world.While certainly a considerable threat to this day, it’s easy to forget how massively destructive the country’s AIDS epidemic was in the 1980s - and how little politicians and health administrations did to curb it. Their story stands as a powerful inspiration to future generations, a road map, and a call to arms.
And as AIDS spread to Africa, India, and Asia, these activists helped open local groups, exporting AIDS activism to press for better, and more accessible, treatment. These activists’ efforts created a paradigm for patient empowerment and health care activism that has since been replicated in the fight against many other diseases from breast cancer to heart disease. These drugs saved their lives and ended the darkest days of the epidemic, while virtually emptying AIDS wards in American hospitals. Academy Award Nominated for Best Documentary! "How To Survive A Plague" is the untold story of the efforts that turned AIDS into a mostly manageable condition – and the improbable group of young men and women who, with no scientific training, infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, and helped identify promising new compounds, moving them through trials and into drugstores in record time.
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