''How to Survive a Plague'' is a 2012 American documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings. France's first film, it was dedicated to his partner Doug Gould who died of AIDS-related 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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

on September 21, 2012, also includes footage of a demonstration during mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989.

Subjects

People featured in the film include: * Bill Bahlman * David Barr * Gregg Bordowitz * George H. W. Bush (archive footage) *

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

(archive footage) * Spencer Cox * Jim Eigo * Susan Ellenberg * Anthony Fauci * Mark Harrington * Jesse Helms (archive footage) * Garance Franke-Ruta *

Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...

Mathilde Krim Mathilde Krim ( he, מתילדה קרים; née Galland; July 9, 1926 – January 15, 2018) was a medical researcher and the founding chairman of amfAR, American Foundation for AIDS Research. Biography Mathilde Galland was born in Como, Italy t ...

Ed Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was ma ...

* Iris Long * Ray Navarro * Ann Northrop * Bob Rafsky *

Peter Staley Peter Staley (born January 9, 1961) is an American political activist, known primarily for his work in HIV/AIDS activism. As an early and influential member of ACT UP, New York, he founded both the Treatment Action Group (TAG) and the educatio ...

Summary

Beginning at the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City, the documentary follows a group of AIDS activists and founders of the AIDS group ACT UP, and follows their struggle for response from the United States government and medical establishment in developing effective HIV/AIDS medications. Activists took it upon themselves to convince the FDA to approve drugs which could slow or even halt the HIV virus, and demanded that drug trials (which would usually take 7–10 years) be shortened so potentially life-saving treatments could be made available. The film also documents the underground market for HIV drugs: many people relied on drugs imported from other countries, which were believed to potentially slow down the HIV virus despite not being FDA-approved. At the time, the only drug available to slow the progression of HIV was AZT, which in many cases was toxic to HIV-infected people, and in some cases even caused blindness. The cost of AZT was about $10,000 per year in the late 1980s. ACT UP's efforts led to the creation of the International AIDS Conference. Eventually, DDI, an alternative 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 Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...

. When existing drugs proved ineffective as treatment for HIV, TAG lobbied for more research into the HIV virus. In 1996,

protease inhibitors Protease inhibitors (PIs) are medications that act by interfering with enzymes that cleave proteins. Some of the most well known are antiviral drugs widely used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. These protease inhibitors prevent viral replicat ...

were released. These consist of a combination of drugs which lower 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. The documentary included interviews with HIV activists, physicians and members of underground organizations as well as clips of the protests, meetings and news coverage taking place during the 1980s and 1990s. France's book of the same title, expanding on the material, events, and people covered in the film, was published in 2016 to critical acclaim. It was described as "the definitive book on AIDS activism", was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and was named to numerous best-of and top-ten lists, including the ''New York Times'' 100 Notable Books for 2016.

Reception

Critical response

Currently, the film has a rating of 98% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, and an average score of 8.40/10, based on 80 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "Angry, powerful, and stirring, ''How to Survive a Plague'' is a brilliantly constructed documentary about the activists who pushed for action to combat the AIDS epidemic". It also has a score of 86 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". AIDS historian

Sarah Schulman Sarah Miriam Schulman (born July 28, 1958) is an American novelist, playwright, nonfiction writer, screenwriter, gay activist, and AIDS historian. She is a Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at College of Staten Island (CSI) and a Fellow a ...

has criticized the film for its focus on wealthy, white activists over the "different kinds of people from every class and background" involved in ACT UP.

Accolades

''How to Survive a Plague'' received awards for best documentary of 2012 from the Gotham Independent Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and from the Boston Society of Film Critics. The Independent Spirit Awards nominated it for Best Documentary. It was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

at the 85th Academy Awards. The film also won a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary and a Peabody Award. It was nominated for a Directors Guild Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Critic A. O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' named ''How to Survive a Plague'' one of the best five documentaries of 2012. Fellow ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic Stephen Holden called the documentary the eighth best film of 2012. It also won Documentary of the Year at Attitude magazine's Attitude Awards 2013.

References

External links

Official website
* * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''How to Survive a Plague'' , list = {{Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Documentary Film {{GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary {{Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary 2012 films 2012 documentary films Documentary films about American politics Documentary films about HIV/AIDS Films about Bill Clinton 2012 LGBT-related films American documentary films Films about activists 2012 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films HIV/AIDS in American films American LGBT-related films 2010s American films