13 - "How to survive a plague" and "We Were Here"

By:Alex, Keiran, and Syed

According to the World Health Organization, there have been, as of 2012, 1.4-1.9 million people that have died from acquired immune deficiency (or immunodeficiency) syndrome, otherwise known as AIDS. This syndrome weakens the immune system (hence the term “immune deficiency”), which usually defends a person against most illnesses. With AIDs, the body can’t defend itself from most diseases. This means that people don’t die from AIDS itself, but rather, they die from the diseases that their body can’t defend from. The two documentaries that follow the story of AIDS are How to Survive a Plague and We Were Here, which explores the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s.

More information and statistics about HIV/AIDS from the UNAIDS’ website -   http://www.unaids.org/en/dataanalysis/datatools/aidsinfo/

How to Survive a Plague

How to Survive a Plague is an American 2012 documentary that was directed by David France. This documentary follows the groups ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and TAG (Treatment Action Group) during the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, which takes place in the 1980s. The film uniquely uses a mix of two means of media. It heavily relies on archival footage of the events, and shows the viewers the demonstrations and meetings of the group. It also uses interviews from members of ACT UP, such as Larry Kramer, one of the key members of the group, as well as researchers for HIV/AIDS.

 The documentary focuses on the history of ACT UP, as well as the history of the AIDS pandemic. With this, it also focuses on the publicity and treatment of AIDS by confronting the government and certain medical institutions, such as Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. This is illustrated in the group’s demonstrations, such as demonstrating in front of the offices of Merck and prevents the workers from going in. The documentary also focuses on LGBT rights. The most prominent example of this was the group’s demonstrations in the hospital and in the St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

This week’s topic was global activism – how can you take a stand against a problem? Activism is, in simple terms, the effort(s) used to change or fix a problem in the government. Methods can vary, from peaceful demonstrations (such as the ones presented in the film) to riots (such as the ones in This Is What Democracy Looks Like). In this documentary’s case, the problems that are being faced are discrimination (which is prejudicial treatment towards a specific group of people) against people with AIDS (fittingly initialized as PWA) and homosexuality. During the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, AIDS was dubbed by the public as “gay cancer”, “gay-related immunodeficiency” and then AIDS. In the eyes of the public, homosexuality was seen as the reason for death by AIDS, as the former attacked the behaviors that caused it (gay sex) as the problem instead of AIDS itself. Because of this, gay people were deprived of direct human contact from fear that heterosexual people would “catch” AIDS. The government would also ignore the disease and would refuse to talk about homosexuality, fearing that it would somehow promote it.

So, how do you face and solve large world problems? There are three simple ways to do it: learn, fight and love. Learning involves understanding the problem – what’s happening? As you understand the entirety of the situation and what can be done about it, the clarity of the procedure would come much quicker. Members of ACT UP also included former scientists and researchers, who have studied AIDS. They also learned that the government had produced treatment for AIDS, so the group believed it was possible. The second step: fight. Fight for what you believe in, and never lose sight on the mission. While the government ignored homosexuality and AIDS, the group essentially took over the media, as shown when Staley, a member of ACT UP, from a guest in Crossfire to represent the PWAs. Finally – love. Fight for what you believe in and with the people you love. Members of ACT UP all worked together, as they all wanted something in common (treatment for AIDS).

How to Survive a Plague trailer

We Were Here

We Were Here is a 90 minute documentary made in 2011 and was directed by David Weissman and Bill Weber. This film follows the story of the gay community in San Francisco from beginning to the end of the AIDS epidemic. Although holding many similarities to the film How to Survive a Plague, We Were Here differentiates itself by focusing less on gay activism and more on the gay community and the people that are a part of it. The majority of the film is a compilation of modern day interviews paired with archival images but, unlike How to Survive a Plague, uses much less archival videos. All the people interviewed in the film are connected to the epidemic in one way or another and usually see it on quite a personal level, whether it be a nurse who treated hundreds of AIDS patients or an AIDS survivor who has lost all his friends. The film never locks its focus on a specific person or story and tries to cover many perspectives on the epidemic. As mentioned above, the films focus lies in the stories and experiences these people had during this time in their lives and plays out like a large storytelling. Instead of trying to show us the struggle of trying to get the word of AIDS out and get people educated about it like How to Survive a Plague did, this film just wants the viewers to see how the epidemic effected not only people with the disease, but everyone around them. The people interviewed who had actually had AIDS and survived all seemed to have a common metaphor to describe the situation, “like being in a warzone.” This was because at any moment, you or someone you know could die in an instant. You could go from a light fever to dead in a week and that’s what made AIDS such a scary disease for these people. This film was special because it did not only tell stories of death and sorrow, but also happiness and community. Although many of the interviewees had trouble holding back tears most of the time whenever they talk about a lost loved one or friend, they kept this happy grin on their faces. They knew that the time they spent with these people was happy and fulfilling and spent more time talking about the good times together than the bad ones. One man named Daniel Goldstein describes throwing a party for a friend of his who was on his last few days. Every person who knew him came to say goodbye, and to save himself from a painful death made a cocktail of medication and killed himself afterwards. This may seem very strange by today’s standards but the suicide rate among aids patients is quite high as stated in this article http://www.painresearch.utah.edu/cancerpain/ch04.html(the information about AIDS is about a quarter down the page.) This is one of many examples of the awful things AIDS victims and their loved ones had to deal with on a daily basis, no 20-something year old should ever have to live through what they did.  Here is the trailer for the film, it gives a good overview of the film’s mood and style.

We Were Here trailer

The 2 documentaries made the world realize that AIDS does not only affect homosexuals, but it can affect everyone’s lives. In the documentaries, we are shown that the world doesn’t seem to care about this epidemic spreading throughout different countries just because it hasn’t affected the “normal people” since the homosexual people are portrayed as people who are abnormal. After watching these documentaries, I felt sympathy towards people who are confused about their sexuality and how the world has been treating them. Their rights are  taken away from them just because they like someone of the same sex. Normally, we see the act of homosexuality as a taboo from the perspective of our society, but the filmmakers found a unique way to show us the perspective of the homosexual community. For example, in How to Survive a Plague, we are taken into the community of ACT UP and are shown what they have been going through and how it was so hard for people to accept the fact that there was an epidemic spreading. I was able to see a different point of view and how they have kept being put aside. In both documentaries, people were able to get together and challenge the world and show them that they had the right to treatments and equality. They showed us determination and how love can play a big factor on how strong the message comes across to the world. These documentaries also play a key role in encouraging the youth to come together and stand up and not to be afraid, because if you stand together nothing can defeat you. Even today, many homosexuals are still not being treated fairly and they’re still being judged for their actions by the society, even though we are very similar, the problem that we face in the world is that many people aren’t open-minded and are failing to realize that they are just like us - humans. While growing up, we are usually told that gay is not the right way  because society will not accept us, but who is the society to tell us what and who we can like or do? We all have the right to express our feelings and thoughts - at least that’s what we are told. After I finished watching these documentaries, I felt sad to see this type of negative reaction from the society. Even though before watching these documentaries I did not feel any sort of sympathy towards homosexuals, I still would not have treated them as badly as I have seen them being treated in the documentaries. Here is an article on the origins of the disease