| Start Date: | 10/28/2015 | Start Time: | 5:30 PM |
| End Date: | 10/28/2015 | End Time: | 8:30 PM |
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Event Description
“Faced with their own mortality an improbable group of young people, many of them HIV-positive young men, broke the mold as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment."
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE is the story of two coalitions—ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group)—whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. With unfettered access to a treasure trove of never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and '90s, filmmaker David France puts the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs of heroes in the making.”
Discussion will be led by Seth Welles, PhD, ScD, Interim Chair & Professor, Drexel University, Dornsife School of Public Health.
Film reviews:
"David France amassed an epic amount of material from the desperate days of AIDS activism. He sifted through 700 hours of footage, and he recorded nearly 100 hours of original interviews with prominent activists, many of whom wept as they told their stories of survival...Despite the overwhelming tragedy of the AIDS era — since recognition of the virus in the early 1980s, HIV has taken the lives of tens of millions — France...said he doesn’t feel as though he’s telling “an AIDS story. The story is about activism and how it can work, how soaringly successful it can be.” - James Sullivan – Boston Globe
“The best documentary of the year. Extraordinarily moving. Singular and powerful.” – Mark Warren – Esquire
"I sat down to watch "How to Survive a Plague," a new documentary about the history of the AIDS epidemic, expecting to cry, and cry I did...I expected to be angry. Here, too, I wasn't disappointed. What I didn't expect was how much hope I would feel. How much comfort. While the movie vividly chronicles the wages of bigotry and neglect, it even more vividly chronicles how much society can budge when the people exhorting it to are united and determined and smart and right.” ¬- Frank Bruni, New York Times
"One of the Top 10 Movies of the Year" - David Edelstein – New York Magazine
This film has won several awards and nominations, including a Best Documentary nomination from the Academy Awards.
All are welcome to this free event. Light refreshments will be provided. For additional information, please contact Jacqueline Rios at jsr62@drexel.edu
Co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Women’s and Gender Studies program |
Contact Information:
Name: Jacqueline Rios
Phone: 215.895.6910
Email: jsr62@drexel.edu |
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Location:
Papadakis Integrated Sciences Building, Room 112, 3300 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
Audience:
Undergraduate StudentsGraduate StudentsSenior ClassProspective StudentsLGBTQA CommunityFacultyStaffAlumni |
Special Features:
Free Food |
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