FYSB 1422: Art, AIDS, Activism

Follows the struggle of a handful of strong-willed men and women who took on the fight to save lives in the face of a mysterious illness now called AIDS.

The story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful nation, and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. This improbable group of activists bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medication and treatments and move them through trials and into drugstores in record time.

Performance art performed on February 24 - April 3, 1994 on 16th street in New York.

A look at dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones's highly acclaimed dance,"Still/Here". At workshops around the country, people facing life-threatening illnesses are asked to remember the highs and lows of their lives, and even imagine their own deaths. They then transform these feelings into expressive movement, which Jones incorporates into the dance "Still/Here". Jones deomonstrates the movements of his life story--his first encounter with white people, confusion over his sexuality, his partner Arnie Zane's untimely death from AIDS, and Jones's own HIV status.

A unique feature-length documentary that combines startling archival footage that puts the audience on the ground with the activists and the remarkably insightful interviews from the ACT UP Oral History Project to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective - how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other's lives.

David Weissman's We Were Here revisits the San Francisco of the 80s and 90s, using the city's experience with AIDS to open up a conversation about both the history of the epidemic and the lessons to be learned from it. Yet the film reaches far beyond San Francisco and beyond AIDS itself as it illuminates the power of a community that comes together with love, compassion, and determination.

Books of James: Inspired by a collection of personal notebooks, Books of James is an experimental documentary on ART, AIDS and ACTIVISM. Based on the writing, drawing, video footage and personal revelation of James Wentzy, an artist/activist in New York City, the film illustrates the 30-year timeline from the late 1970s to the present, examining the changes in the social and political landscape of America. Following James from South Dakota to New York City, the film traces his days from struggling and surviving as an artist to later becoming an AIDS video activist. In showcasing a unique individual through his involvement with the fight against AIDS and his tireless frontline reportage of the crisis, Books of James is an intimate portrait of a neglected everyman/hero and unearths a time now forgotten.

An underground band of HIV-positive, queer, urban, transvestite, activists of color is making headlines in New York. In an effort to expose political corruption surrounding the AIDS epidemic, these urban guerrillas stage a series of surprise attacks against conservative politicians whom they believe are collecting secret lists of HIV-positive individuals.

A compilation of footage documenting the first ACT UP meeting in 1987 on New York City's Wall Street, as well as subsequent meetings and actions through 2002.

Zackie Achmat is an AIDS activist who refuses to take anti-retrovirals until they are available in public hospitals and clinics. He leads the court battle against the multi-national drug companies and takes on the South African government for it's confusing policies around HIV/AIDS. As a leader in the campaign for affordable treatment, Zackie's provocative position is not one all his friends and colleagues support.

This documentary, directed by Ann Rossetti, Shanti Avirgan, and Anne-Christine d'Adesky, is about AIDS treatment activism.

Documentary film exploring the planning and execution of the disruption of a service at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in 1989 by the radical gay rights group, ACT UP. The filmmaker brings the audience into the Cathedral during the protest as well as into the planning sessions of ACT UP, New York.