At the height of the AIDS crisis, many gay men sold their life insurance policies to investors for quick cash. This documentary charts the rise and fall of the hundred-million-dollar “gay-death-profiteering” industry that grew out of their desperation, and spotlights one of its earliest investors: the filmmaker’s father.
A 26-year-old man becomes gravely ill and died of an unknown disease. He was clearly hexed: it’s October 1980 and we are in Haïti. Meanwhile, in Reagan's country, health authorities have decided that Haitians, Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs and Heroin users are to be part of the 4H club whose members are dying in New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto. Why put the Haitians in a separate group?
Letter Beyond the Walls reconstructs the trajectory of HIV and AIDS with a focus on Brazil, through interviews with doctors, activists, patients and other actors, in addition to extensive archival material. From the initial panic to awareness campaigns, passing through the stigma imposed on people living with HIV, the documentary shows how society faced this epidemic in its deadliest phase over more than two decades. With this historical approach as its base, the film looks at the way HIV is viewed in today's society, revealing a picture of persistent misinformation and prejudice, which especially affects Brazil’s most historically vulnerable populations.
Short documentary about artist Keith Haring, detailing his involvement in the New York City graffiti subculture, his opening of the Pop Shop, and the social commentary present in his paintings and drawings.
'La Mamma Morta’ is an aria from the opera Andrea Chenier that is also well-known for its use in a memorable sequence in the Oscar award-winning Philadelphia. Thirty years on, this new short film from WNO includes a brand-new recording of the aria featured alongside recreated scenes that better encapsulate the perspectives of people living with HIV today. To mark World AIDS Day 2023, the Welsh National Orchestra released a special new version of La mamma morta, featuring WNO Orchestra, soprano Camilla Roberts and Nathaniel Hall from Channel 4’s It’s a Sin. Released as part of the last rendition in the Three Letters project, this film aims to tackle societal stigma around HIV.
The film depicts a friendship between an Irish journalist in Kenya and a Rwandan woman, who pair up to combat the AIDS crisis in the 1990s.
This follow-up to the 1989 documentary ONE YEAR IN A LIFE OF CRIME revisits three of the original subjects in New Jersey during a five-year period in the 1990s. We share in their triumphs and setbacks as they navigate lives of poverty, drug abuse, AIDS, and petty crime.
A trio of interweaved transgressive tales, telling a bizarre stories of suburban patricide and a miraculous flight from justice, a mad sex experiment which unleashes a disfiguring plague, and the obsessive sexual relationship between two prison inmates.
A father-daughter relationship evolves through an era of bohemian decadence in 1970s San Francisco to the sober and heartbreaking era of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Different experts make a stand against today's putatively criminal and harmful health system, focusing on Anthony Fauci and his role in the shaping of the AIDS and COVID-19 epidemics.
In 1992, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, activist Terence Alan Smith made a historic bid for president of the United States as his drag queen persona Joan Jett Blakk. Today, Smith reflects back on his seminal civil rights campaign and its place in American history.
Therese Frare's photograph of the AIDS activist David Kirby on his deathbed incited international controversy when it was used in a United Colors of Benetton advertisement in 1992. This short documentary, commissioned by TIME Magazine for their series 100 Photos about the most influential photographs of all time, features photographer Therese Frare, former Benetton Creative Director Oliviero Toscani, and the artists and AIDS activists Tom Kalin and Marlene McCarthy.
Ballet For Life, which tours widely to this day, marked Queen’s collaboration with Gianni Versace and the choreographer Maurice Béjart. It celebrated the life and work of Freddie Mercury and Béjart’s former principal dancer, Jorge Donn, who like the Queen frontman, died of AIDS. The ballet was first performed in January 1997 at the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris in the presence of Madame Chirac, Elton John and Queen’s three surviving members, John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor.
With her mother's diary in hand, Marina's search for official documents for university leads her to her biological family on the Atlantic coast. What starts as an administrative quest reveals long-buried family secrets.
Emma loves Sammy, who loves Cyril, who loves her back. What could have been a love story at the end of the last century is blown apart by the arrival of AIDS. Expecting the worst, each character's destiny takes an unexpected turn.
Archivos VIH/sida: historias y voces de una pandemia
Two strangers meet at a train station on the day of an LGBT march. Their conversation drifts from topic to topic, as they flirt, argue, do small talk, and eventually share their secrets and loves.
Through interviews with key AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) stakeholders from over the years coupled with archival video footage culled from AHF's 30 years of advocacy, care and activism, 'Keeping the Promise' tells a compelling story of AHF's history while offering a glimpse of, and road map to its future.
William Hart McNichols is a world renowned artist, heralded by Time magazine as "among the most famous creators of Christian iconic images in the world". As a young Catholic priest from 1983-1990 he was immersed in a life-altering journey working as a chaplain at St. Vincent's AIDS hospice in New York city. It was during this time that he became an early pioneer for LGBT rights within the Catholic church. "The Boy Who Found Gold" is a cinematic journey into the art and spirit of William Hart McNichols. The film follows his colorful life as he crosses paths with presidents, popes, martyrs, and parishioners, finding an insightful lesson with each encounter. McNichols' message as a priest, artist and man speaks to the most powerful element of the human spirit: Mercy.
Steven Russell leads a seemingly average life – an organ player in the local church, happily married to Debbie, and a member of the local police force. That is until he has a severe car accident that leads him to the ultimate epiphany: he’s gay and he’s going to live life to the fullest – even if he has to break the law to do it. Taking on an extravagant lifestyle, Steven turns to cons and fraud to make ends meet and is eventually sent to the State Penitentiary where he meets the love of his life, a sensitive, soft-spoken man named Phillip Morris. His devotion to freeing Phillip from jail and building the perfect life together prompts him to attempt (and often succeed at) one impossible con after another.