DennisHinSF Review of How to Survive a Plague

How to Survive a Plague (2012)

Wonderful Look Backwards to a Terrifying Time

[10/10 · 9 December 2012]

First of all, this review might not need a spoiler warning, being a documentary, and most people are pretty well up on the facts of the case. But since this is my 1st review, I thought I'd play it on the safe side (in that regard anyway.) The Film begins in 1987, the 6th year of the AIDS Crisis. It opens at the East Coast Ground Zero, New York City's Greenwich Village. It is the story of ACTUP, The AIDS Coalition To Uleash Power, a group of mostly young people determined to make the medical system responsive to people who are simply running out of time, who are dying, many in their early 20's. In addition to seeking treatments for this incurable (and in 1987, nearly 100% fatal) disease, they are through confrontational, non-violent tactics challenging the internalized Homophobia in the Medical System, Police Departmemnts, Our Governments, and more-much more. People today have a hard time believing that hospitals would turn away the dying, or that ambulances would refuse to transport patients with AIDS, but it is TRUE. Now that I've covered some of the story, I can tell you that this is one of the finest stories of human courage I have ever seen. The specter of young men and women falling victim in the prime of their lives, combined with the inaction and almost blasé attitudes of our own government is something to behold. The film at some places focuses on 4 or 5 main characters in the ACTUP group-as the story unfolds we watch some soldier on and some die. Myself, I came to love every one of them, and some knew at the start what they were doing was for future generations; they knew it was too late for them. Part of me still screams 25 years later; These people put their lives on the line, got involved with drug protocols early on, risked repeated arrest and police beatings (notice the latex gloves on the police).The style is mostly cinema verite; the editing is superb; and remember ACTUP did all this - without the internet, no cell phones, not even a fax machine. It is amazing what human beings can do when motivated. And in this case, it was either mobilize, inform, demand humanity, or just lay down and die. See This Film! It is essential viewing for an era that must NEVER be forgotten.