• Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
  • Search Site

Polari Magazine

  • Home
  • Up Front
    • Editorial
    • Clementine: The Living Fashion Doll
    • Polari Safari
    • WTF? Friday
    • Bulletin Board
    • Polari Facts
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Features
    • Gallery
    • Opinion
    • Heroes & Villains
  • Community
    • Oral Histories
    • Coming Out Stories
    • Relationships
    • IDAHO
    • LGBT History Month
    • Blogs
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Film and Television
    • Music
    • Stage
    • Visual Arts
    • Classics: Books
    • Classics: Film and Television
    • Classics: Music
  • About
    • About Polari Magazine
    • Contributors
    • Contact

You are here: Polari Magazine / Film & Television / How To Survive A Plague

How To Survive A Plague

21 Mar 2013 / Comments Off / in Film & Television/by David Robson

How To Survive A Plague ★★★★★
Dir: David France
Cert:NR • USA: 109 min • Public Square Films •  2012 
………………………………………………………………………………………….

How To Survive A Plague, Film ReviewHow To Survive A Plague, Film review

I have never been in a cinema and witness an entire crowd stand at the end of a film and give a heart-warming standing ovation. But that’s what happened when I went to see David France’s Oscar nominated How to Survive a Plague at the BFI London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. People not only stood and cheered, many wiped away tears as France took to the stage and looked genuinely taken back by the appreciation of his work.

The documentary tells the story of the AIDS pandemic through the eyes of the AIDS activist groups ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group). It focuses on several of the group’s key activists and, starting in the late 1980s, chronologically tells the story of their fight to research and access treatable drugs for patients with AIDS. Shot through archive interviews, newsreels and camcorder footage, it’s a truly inspirational story of how a community can come together and fight for real social change.

I almost had to remind myself that it wasn’t a suspense thriller; this was a documentary of real life events and a plague which had no end in sight for such a long time. Each year the death toll was rising, the US government persisted to ignore the calls for further action to be taken and the recently deceased ex-mayor of New York Ed Koch called the protestors the work of fascists. It makes uncomfortable viewing to see such action attacked and belittled as the work of trouble makers rather than a community’s voice fighting to be heard.

Possibly one of the most moving scenes was the focus on the run up to the 1992 US Presidential election. Tens of thousands of protestors took part in ‘Ashes Action’. People were so frustrated with being disregarded by their government as mere ashes and bones that they took the ashes and bones of loved ones up the Whitehouse and scattered them across the lawn in an act of grief and love in the hope it would bring further action from the government to help end the crisis.

I must admit to my ignorance of not knowing how we came to the breakthrough of combinational therapy which has since enriched HIV patients lives considerably. When France was asked by a member of the audience why the documentary wasn’t made sooner, he likened it to such atrocities as the Holocaust, and that sometimes when you have lived through and survived something so horrific it takes time to absorb it before you are able to speak about it. Such a large number of the people in the film are either no longer here to share their experiences, or their whereabouts unknown, that we can only be thankful to France for being finding the courage to speak out and share this story with us now.

Mark Harrington (cofounder and policy director of TAG) says that if only Reagan had listened in the early ’80s to the calls for AIDS research then maybe there wouldn’t have been so many deaths. If it wasn’t for the efforts of Harrington and his colleagues the death toll would have kept rising.

This documentary does make you feel a debt of gratitude for the battles won so that future generations could live and continue the struggle against HIV/AIDS. It’s a harrowing thought to wonder what we, the LGBT community, if it wasn’t for the actions of these activists.

France’s historical account is essential viewing. It’s honest, moving and a stark reminder of how even in the darkest of times there is hope for survival.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
Tags: act up, bfi london lesbian and gay film festival, david france, hiv aids research, how to survive a plague, llgff, mark harrington, reagan administration, tag, treatment action group

Related Posts

Did you like this entry?
Here are a few more posts that might be interesting for you.
Related Posts
Queer Film and Culture • Cascais & Ferreira
Interior. Leather Bar.
Festival Highlights • March 25
Naked Talk: In Their Room London
Age of Consent: An Interview with Charles Lum
Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Festival: The Inter...
Discovering Big Joy: The Spiritual Legacy of James...
The 26th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festiv...
Festival Highlights • March 24

Search Polari

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

About Polari Magazine

Polari Magazine is an LGBT arts and culture magazine that explores the subculture by looking at what is important to the people who are in it. It’s about the lives we lead, not the lifestyles we’re supposed to lead.

Its content is informed & insightful, and features a diverse range of writers from every section of the community. Its intent is to help LGBT readers learn about their own heritage and to sustain a link between the present and the past.

Polari is designed to nurture the idea of community, whether that be social and political, or artistic and creative. It is your magazine, whether you want to read it, or whether you want to get involved in it, if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or queer.

Polari Magazine is all these: it's a gay online magazine; it's a gay and lesbian online magazine; it's an LGBT arts and culture magazine. Ultimately, it is a queer magazine.

Latest Posts

  • Polari Magazine 2008-2014December 3, 2014 - 6:16 pm
  • Tearing Up Their Map: An Interview with LambDecember 2, 2014 - 2:45 pm
  • Future Islands • GigDecember 2, 2014 - 1:41 pm
  • Puppets with Attitude (at Christmas)December 1, 2014 - 6:30 pm
  • The Aesthetic of Voyeurism: Interview with Antonio Da SilvaDecember 1, 2014 - 1:25 pm
  • Broke With Expensive Taste • Azealia BanksNovember 28, 2014 - 3:59 pm
  • Royalty Strutting on an American College Stage: Miss and Mr. Gay ISU 2014November 27, 2014 - 2:59 pm
  • Bright Light Bright Light: Everything I Ever WantedNovember 26, 2014 - 11:15 am
  • Jaime Nanci And The Blueboys: ‘Toy’ TalkNovember 25, 2014 - 4:09 pm

Twitter

Tweets by @PolariMagazine

Archive

  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • July 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • May 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
© Copyright - Polari Magazine - Wordpress Theme by Kriesi.at
  • scroll to top
  • Send us Mail
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Join our Facebook Group
  • Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Website Privacy & Cookies