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Outfest 2012: “United in Anger: A History of Act Up” is an outstanding documentary not to be missed


I’m very much looking forward to seeing the documentary How to Survive a Plague at Outfest tomorrow night. If it lives up to expectations, then it will have been quite an outstanding trio of documentary films – Vito and United in Anger: A History of Act Up are the others – that focus on the amazing activists during the AIDS crisis.

I wrote about Vito a few days ago and now want to share some thoughts about United in Anger directed by Jim Hubbard. DGA 2 was absolutely sold out on Monday for this documentary about the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a group that was willing to do whatever it took to get drugs approved for the treatment HIV and AIDS.

It is astounding, and actually thrilling, to watch this group in action. Thank God they faithfully filmed whenever they took to the streets and protested government agencies. We really get a front-row seat to their weekly meetings which resulted in some really ingenious demonstrations at the headquarters of the Federal Drug Administration, The White House, inside the studio at CBS News as Dan Rather began his newscast, inside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and other locations.

That’s the thrilling part of it all, when you see these events come together and you see the government, drug companies and powers that be actually be shaken – and shamed – out of their apathy.

You understand their fury at the indifference of the federal government and there is such an urgency because so many of these activists were literally fighting for their lives – and so many did not live much past the interviews they are shown in.

Hubbard reminds us of who each and every activist is every time they are on screen and it is very effective to share when they died. Such vibrant, brilliant and beautiful people gone.

Films like this ensure that they live forever.

One survivor, Matt Ebert, says in the film: “I wouldn’t be alive today if I had not been arrested 20 years ago. I would not have the medicines to take to stay alive. … It gave a lot of young gay kids something to fight for. It was our World War II.”

When ACT UP was formed in 1987, more than 40,000 people had already died from AIDS in the United States. President Ronald Reagan had yet to utter the name if the disease. In New York City, where ACT UP was formed, Mayor Ed Koch was equally apathetic.

But ACT UP got the world’s attention.

Member Larry Kramer, the renowned author and playwright (The Normal Heart), was jubilant in the film after 7,000 activists ascended upon St. Patrick’s Cathedral to protest the Catholic Church’s position against using condoms to prevent AIDS.

“They’re afraid of us now,” Kramer says. “That’s the best thing that could’ve happened to us.”

After the screening, Hubbard said his motivation for making the film is to ensure that ACT UP and AIDS activism is given its rightful place in US history. Just as importantly, he wants to inspire younger generations.

Hubbard has scathing words for the Reagan administration which, he says, set a model of “malign neglect” for other countries around the world when it came to dealing with AIDS.

“We could get rid of AIDS if there was political will,” he said.

I snapped photo (above) of Hubbard after the film with two ACT UP members who are in the film: David Robinson and Patricia Navarro.

Here is a LINK to the film’s website.

FILE UNDER: Outfest

Comments

(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)

3 Remarks

  1. An important film everyone should watch IMHO.

  2. July 18th, 2012 at 11:05 am
    Jim Hubbard says:

    Greg –

    Thanks for the great review.

    One correction: I accused the Reagan administration of MALIGN neglect. They weren’t benign; they were evil.

    Jim Hubbard

  3. Thank you Jim, I’ve made the change. Thanks for such an outstanding film. I’m still processing it.

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