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How to Survive a Plague

United States

2012

109 Min
Color
English
  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
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DIR David France

EXEC Joy Tomchin, Dan Cogan

PROD David France, Howard Gertler

SCR David France, T. Woody Richman, Tyler Walk

ED T. Woody Richman, Tyler Walk

Sundance (U.S. Documentary Competition), San Francisco (Documentaries), Outfest (Centerpiece)

Synopsis

Faced with their own mortality, an improbable group of mostly HIV-positive young men and women broke the mold as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment. How to Survive a Plague is 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. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With unfettered access to a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and ’90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making.

Blisteringly powerful, How to Survive a Plague transports us back to a vital time of unbridled death, political indifference, and staggering resilience and constructs a commanding archetype for activism today. –Sundance Film Festival

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Displaying 4 of 10 wall posts.
Picture of Gillian Sore

Gillian Sore

28Mar13

Powerful, gripping, moving, when Larry Kramer screams Plague!...wow.

Picture of Samuel Andrade

Samuel Andrade

23Feb13

★★★ deeply and up-close historical information, but misuses the riveting found footage in its possession through sloppy editing. that bursting moment by Larry Kramer is, alone, worth the viewing.

Gillian Sore likes this

Picture of Jordan Peters

Jordan Peters

22Feb13

Well-crafted but decidedly boring.

Picture of chaplen

chaplen

18Feb13

i learned a lot about AIDS but not a lot about why this is considered a good documentary.

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