Stiff Sheets

One of the earliest documentaries to deal with AIDS.

This film tells the story of the unknown pre-history of the AIDS virus, long before people started to die in the US and Europe. Following a team of scientists we uncover a forgotten medical archive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, that tells of an epidemic a full two decades before anyone knew about the novel killer. From high-tech labs in the US to African medics who have their boots on the ground, we trace HIV back to its origin in the jungles of Cameroon. In the decades around the turn of the 20th century, colonialism fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people in central Africa; it created an environment that allowed HIV to leave its original host, the chimpanzee, and start to spread in humans.

Narrated by Linda Hunt, this documentary examines the life of the late author and gay rights activist Paul Monette. Born in 1945 to a well-off Massachusetts family, Monette grows up unable to accept his homosexuality, for years hiding it from his loved ones while struggling to develop as a writer. In 1978, Monette publishes his first novel, which allows him to come out to his parents. After losing one lover to AIDS in 1986, he becomes a ferocious advocate for awareness of the disease.

"Panic Bodies is a 70-minute, six-part exploration of the ways we experience the body's betrayals: disease, decline and death. The film is a panorama of emotionally charged recollections of strange relatives and estranged siblings, staged recreations of fast-fading pasts and personal mythologies, and reflections on the anxious states created by the body's fragile claims on time and space. It's about being a stranger in your own skin. Panic Bodies perfects the phantom quality of any good work about mourning, but it is not reducible to that. It is also enlivened by the intimacy that comes from having made a spectacle of personal secrets." (Kathleen Pirrie Adams, Xtra)

German iconoclast filmmaker and gay-rights activist Rosa vonPraunheim examines his own life and career in the documentary Phooey Rosa! With a quickly paced editing style, the film is a mix of personal banter, candid interviews, and clips from his filmography. It also includes footage from his early film Bed Sausage to his later work Neurosia. At the age of 60, vonPraunheim reveals intimate details about his past relationships and his childhood growing up after WWII. He also implicates some of his friends and inspirations, including Luzi Kryn and Rainer Kranach.

Seizing her power as she confronts her mortality, trailblazing trans activist Connie Norman evolves as an irrepressible, challenging and soulful voice for the AIDS and queer communities of early 90's Los Angeles.

Alvin Ailey was a visionary artist who found salvation through dance. Told in his own words and through the creation of a dance inspired by his life, this immersive portrait follows a man who, when confronted by a world that refused to embrace him, determined to build one that would.

The compelling story of Todd Coleman, a 22-year-old gay man with AIDS, and those who cared for him during the last weeks of his life. Todd, his lover, doctor, nurse, social worker and two volunteers reveal the human realities and the importance of practical support, friendship and unconditional love.

A Finished Life: The Goodbye & No Regrets Tour is a feature length documentary about Gregg Gour, a 48-year-old gay man with AIDS, who, when given six months to live, takes the road trip of his life. Gregg had been HIV positive for 24 years and during that time the side effects of the medications made him increasingly sicker than the virus itself. In the last several years he felt that his quality of life had diminished considerably, so he choose to go off his meds and no longer fight death. After giving away all of his belongings, Gregg buys an RV and travels across the United States with his dog, Cody, saying goodbye to family and friends who have to come to terms with Gregg's decision: That rather than suffer a long, painful death, he will end his own life before allowing the progressing illness to take away his independence.

As a result of the Holocaust and later, AIDS, the male homosexual community has sustained bitter losses and, according to Praunheim, lesbian women have now placed themselves at the head of the so-called queer movement. The female protagonists in the film represent two different generations; they also incorporate the past and present status of homosexuals in society.

Controversial documentary about gay men purposely contracting the AIDS virus.

Linda and Kenya narrate their testimony about being women and living with HIV in a time where stigma, negligence and androcentricity force them to start an activism that is still present in their community.

An in-depth portrait of British composer, pianist and singer Elton John, pop star and myth of modern culture.

A spirited cancer survivor goes on a spontaneous search for 'The Berlin Patient' - the first man in the world actually cured of HIV.

A look at the rampant HIV epidemic rate in Swaziland.

The story of musician Thomas Muchimba Buttenschøn - born HIV+ in 1985 - and his crusade to use his music to wipe out AIDS in his native Zambia and beyond.

Voices of Positive Women is a ground-breaking documentary examination of the impact of HIV and AIDS on the lives of women working from material published in the book "Positive Women", a collection of personal accounts of women from all over the world living with AIDS and HIV. Bravely sharing their experiences publicly in what until now has been a void of information and support, and in some cases medical and bureaucratic denial that women are even at risk, the nine women presented in Voices of Positive Women speak compellingly on their own terms of their personal struggles for survival and voice.

Introducing a generation of young Africans determined to be the first free of AIDS.

Sexual decisions have deadly consequences. Can a small group of college students from Botswana challenge conventional wisdom about AIDS in Africa to save their generation? "The Road We Know" explores the impact of HIV/AIDS in Botswana through the efforts of these young adults who boldly advocate for behavior change to save lives. Facing cultural taboos and difficult travel, this small group sets out across the nation for five weeks with three tents, one car, and a radical solution to save lives.

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