THEGAYUK WINTER 13 /14 Issue 1
FILM
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE
REVIEW
By Greg Mitchell
★★★★★!
“Never has so much been owed
by so many to so few.” These
are the words of Sir Winston
Churchill, referring to the efforts
of the Royal Air Force pilots
fighting the Battle of Britain in
1940, but they are also the
words that sprang into my mind
after watching David France’s
brilliant documentary How To
Survive A Plague. It tells the
story of a small group of men
and women, most of them HIV
positive, who battled against
government indifference and
departmental incompetence, to
save their own lives. In so doing
they helped save the lives of
6,000,000.
This is a great piece of filmmaking that documents the
courage and determination of
these people in the face of
appalling obstacles from a
government that couldn’t give a
damn. The overriding message
from the Reagan, and then the
Bush administration, was that
gay people didn’t matter, that
AIDS was a result of bad
lifestyle choices, and that we
deserved it.
Using archive footage, we are
given stark reminders of the
shock tactics they used to bring
their plight to the attention of
the world, culminating in the
display of the 8,288 panels of
the AIDS quilt in 1988, and the
march on the White House,
when relatives and lovers of the
dead scattered the ashes of their
loved ones onto the White
House lawn. These were the
days when funeral parlours
refused the bodies of people
who had died of AIDS, when
hospital security guards barred
AIDS patients from entering
emergency wards. Dark times
indeed, chillingly brought to life
again in the newsreel footage we
see in this movie. But anger
alone was not going to be
enough to win the battle. We
learn how these activists became
scientists, taking on an intense
study of virology, immunology,
pharmacology and cellular
biology in an attempt to help
direct the global research effort.
Sadly, not all of the activists
lived long enough to see the
fruits of their labour; to see
AIDS (or HIV) become a
manageable condition, as it is
today. Of those that did, the
charismatic Peter Staley
emerges as the undoubted star.
Given just 18 months to live at
the age of 26, he is galvanised
into fighting for his life, and
there is no doubt that his
eloquence (not to mention his
youthful good looks) helped
spearhead the campaign.
David France tells this story
clearly and unflinchingly,
putting us right at the heart of
the battle, the occasional
heartbreak at failure and the
euphoria surrounding success;
even the internal rifts and
skirmishes. Gripping, moving,
inspiring, at times emotionally
draining, it is a story that
demands to be told.
Required viewing for every gay
man, particularly those under
the age of 30, I recommend it
absolutely. We owe our lives to
these people. Surely the rest of
us can spare them 110 minutes
of our time. ∎
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Available to stream on iTunes visit
the website: surviveaplague.com
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