Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt narrated the film on a pro bono basis because he believed the story and subject matter was important to share. This documentary examines Africa's AIDS crisis and the intentional obstruction from pharmaceutical companies to make antiretroviral drugs more affordable. Bush to sign a critical and bipartisan bill into law known as "The Ryan White CARE Act." This act provided more than $2 billion to help Americans battling HIV/AIDS. While suffering from the disease, White and his family bravely fought against bigots who saw AIDS as some kind of heavenly punishment against gay men and intravenous drug users (two of the largest groups initially stricken with the disease). The film is dedicated to Doug Gould, France's partner, who died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992.īased on the real-life teenaged hemophilic Ryan White, who contracted HIV from a tainted blood treatment, this film follows his battle for his right to attend public school. This protest of more than 4,500 people remains one of the largest ever staged against the Catholic church.
Patrick's Cathedral in 1989, which inspired the notable protest scene in Ryan Murphy's FX drama series, Pose. It also includes the ACT UP demonstration during a mass at St. In his directorial debut, journalist David France, who covered the epidemic from the beginning, uses more than 700 hours of archival footage, including news coverage, interviews, demonstrations, meetings, and conferences taken by ACT UP members. This critically-acclaimed documentary film tells the story of the early years of the AIDS epidemic and activist groups ACT UP and TAG's efforts during this time. For his role as Andrew Beckett (inspired in part by attorney Geoffrey Bowers), Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1994.
Philadelphia is the first major studio movie to tackle the epidemic head-on and this classic contribution to gay cinema stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. One of the more memorable lines from the film that sums up the initial years of the epidemic is, "The gay press calls it gay pneumonia or gay cancer, and the straight press doesn't mention it all." While the ensemble cast, including Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Ian McKellen, Lily Tomlin, Richard Gere, Steve Martin, and Anjelica Huston, are all remarkable, no one explicitly sticks out, with the focus staying on the AIDS crisis and not the A-list actors.Īt the time of this film's release, there was a tremendous reluctance from major Hollywood studios to produce a film about the AIDS crisis. While rumors of the show's fate continue to circulate, check out these movies that faithfully and respectfully cover the subject of HIV and AIDS.ĭirected by Roger Spottiswoode ( The Best of Times, Turner & Hooch, and Tomorrow Never Dies) and based on the bestselling book by journalist Randy Shilts, this enlightening television film docudrama tells the discovery of the disease we now know as AIDS. Sadly, the likelihood of a direct follow-up is slim. The show covered a tremendous amount of ground from the conspiracy theories surrounding the virus's origin, the oppression and stigma around HIV and homosexuality, the anxiety of getting tested (having to wait six+ weeks for test results!), and perhaps most profoundly, the relationships created during such a challenging time.īut covering everything of importance during this decade proved challenging in a limited series, and it left viewers, including myself, asking if there will be a season two.
The decade-spanning five-episode series is currently streaming on HBO Max in the U.S.
It's a Sin, the new series exploring the 1980s AIDS crisis from prolific creator Russell T Davies, left me wanting to learn more.