Kritiken

The story alone is compelling... and the documentary does it justice. Using loads of footage shot by group members themselves and television news crews of the 80s, the palpability of death comes through as strongly as it can in cinema.

For all its good intentions, How To Survive a Plague is not especially suited to the gracious storytelling medium of celluloid [sic]. With its unsculpted time-capsule quality it seems destined to live in the hands of those who would deploy it as an empowering and important history lesson.

A rare documentary that will move you to tears and outrage with absolutely no pandering, manipulation or softening of the subject's complex science, How to Survive a Plague is that rare animal — required viewing for those interested in the subject and in cinema itself. It's one of the year's best films. Full stop.

The latest in a recent spate of AIDS-themed documentaries, “How to Survive a Plague” is an exceptional portrait of a community in crisis and the focused fury of its response.

Drawing on a wealth of footage from inside ACT UP meetings and protests, David France’s powerful documentary How To Survive A Plague pays tribute to their courage and relentlessness, but it’s even better as a record of the tactics of effective activism.

Of course, on a global scale the story is far from over, but France, drawing on a wealth of video footage from inside the organization, turns that decade of rage, despair, and tenacity into an inspiring tale of effective political action.

"How to Survive a Plague" follows the drama with the immediacy of the video shot at the time, and some of its most fascinating scenes involve scientists from drug companies such as Merck explaining the slow growth of knowledge about the nature of the disease.

The result is an emotionally searing, awe-inspiring and ultimately empowering film that should be shown as Social Justice 101. France’s film is the definitive ACT UP New York documentation that audiences in our Occupied world need to see.

France is always careful not to confuse "tribute" with "nostalgia." Ann Northrup recalls the less-harmonious moments in ACT UP's history, "the inevitable splits in priorities" and "the charges of sabotages and threats." Amplifying this, France includes electrifying footage of Larry Kramer, the catalyst behind the activist group, erupting during a meeting after a prolonged exchange between unseen, nasty cavilers.

How to Survive a Plague occasionally taps the personal, as individuals like frontline warrior Bob Rafsky grow frailer with each passing birthday party. But the true value of the film is universal: These kids study the knotty viral science, pressure doctors into taking daring, inventive steps and make their cause a global emblem. It forces you to wonder why we can't have two "greatest generations." Every fighter, whatever the cause, is expected to attend.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of David France’s emotionally charged documentary, How to Survive a Plague, is that despite the wealth of books, films and plays dealing with AIDS, this feels like a part of the story that hasn’t yet been told — certainly not with such probing insight. Packed with fascinating interviews and stirring footage from the trenches, the film deftly shapes its information stream into a powerful drama recounting the highs and lows, setbacks and victories in the fight for an effective HIV treatment.

A veteran journalist who’s been reporting on AIDS since the epidemic’s earliest days, debuting helmer France and his first-rate collaborators have assembled a package as engrossing in human terms as it is historically informative. Artful editing, original scoring and music supervision make especially valuable contributions.