How to Survive a Plague

How to Survive a Plague is a 2012 American documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings. For France it was his first film. He dedicated it to his partner Doug Gould, who died of AIDSrelated pneumonia in 1992. The documentary was produced using more than 700 hours of archived footage which included news coverage, interviews as well as film of demonstrations, meetings and conferences taken by ACT UP members themselves. France says they knew what they were doing was historic, and that many of them would die. The film, which opened in select theatres across the United States on September 21, 2012, also includes footage of a demonstration during mass at St. Patricks Cathedral in 1989.

Beginning at the start of the HIVAIDS epidemic in the United States, the documentary follows a group of AIDS activists and founders of AIDS group ACT UP, and follows their struggle for response from the United States government and medical establishment in developing effective HIVAIDS medications. Activists took it upon themselves to get the FDA to approve drugs that could slow down or even halt the AIDS virus and demanded that the trials that would usually take 710 years to test be shortened and put on the market. It also documents the underground market for HIV drugs. Many people relied on drugs imported from other countries that could potentially slow down the HIV virus, despite the medications not being FDA approved. At the time, the only drug available to slow the progression of HIV was AZT which was in many cases toxic to HIV infected people, and in some cases caused blindness. The cost of AZT was about 10,000 a year in the late 1980s, which many HIV activists considered too expensive. ACT UPs efforts led to the creation of the International Aids Conference. DDIan alternative medication to AZT, that did not cause blindness was released by the FDA despite not going through a full length safety trial.HIV activists also protested the immigration policies banning HIV positive people from immigrating to the United States as being discriminatory and homophobic. When existing drugs proved ineffective as treatment for HIV, TAG lobbied for more research into the HIV virus. In 1996 Protease inhibitors were released as a combination of drugs that lowered the HIV viral load in patients more than any drug had before. It was considered a breakthrough in HIV and AIDS research and continues to be used as a treatment for HIV and AIDS. ........

Source: Wikipedia