How to Survive a Plague (2012)

Release Date: September 21st, 2012

Director: David France

Writers: David France, Todd Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk

Actors: Bill Clinton, Bob Rafsky, David Barr, George Bush, Gregg Bordowitz, Iris Long, Jim Eigo, Larry Kramer, Mark Harrington, Peter Staley, Ray Navarro

Genre: Documentary, History, News

MPAA Rating: Not available

Official site: Not available

Studio: Not available

The story of two coalitions — ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) —
whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition.
A stunning, inspirational documentary that bears witness to how a committed group of activists battling to save their own lives managed to save 6 million others.
In the dark days of 1987, the country was six years into the AIDS epidemic, a crisis that was still largely being ignored both by government officials and health organizations—until the sudden emergence of the activist group ACT UP in Greenwich Village, largely made up of HIV-positive participants who refused to die without a fight. Emboldened by the power of rebellion, they took on the challenges that public officials had ignored, raising awareness of the disease through a series of dramatic protests. More remarkably, they became recognized experts in virology, biology, and pharmaceutical chemistry. Their efforts would see them seize the reins of federal policy from the FDA and NIH, force the AIDS conversation into the 1992 presidential election, and guide the way to the discovery of effective AIDS drugs that stopped an HIV diagnosis from being an automatic death sentence—and allowed them to live long lives.
First-time director and award-winning journalist David France (who has been covering the AIDS crisis for 30 years, first for the gay press and then for the New York Times and Newsweek, among others) culls from a huge amount of archival footage—most of it shot by the protestors themselves (30 videographers are credited)—to create not just an historical document, but an intimate and visceral recreation of the period through the very personal stories of some of ACT UP’s leading participants. A handbook for all activists who want to make change, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE captures both the joy and terror of those days, and the epic day-by-day battles that finally made AIDS survival possible.