60 Minutes - Fighting AIDS

ABC News Primetime Out of Control: AIDS in Black America

"Out of Control: AIDS in Black America" is the first national network television news documentary on the AIDS epidemic among African Americans--- an epidemic that is spreading fast, but that has attracted little consistent attention from leaders in public health, politics, or religion. In interviews with AIDS activists, doctors, and people on the front lines of the epidemic, "Out of Control: AIDS in Black America" paints a sobering and shocking portrait of the disease, and the failure of leadership that has allowed the epidemic to spiral into a crisis in small towns and inner cities across the country.

Absolutely Positive
Janet Cole

This upbeat documentary is an exploration of how those living with an HIV-positive diagnosis manage in the face of what is widely considered to be a death sentence. The stories of these twelve diverse individuals, who range from gay men to blood-transfusion recipients and heterosexual couples, are told in a direct fashion largely through interviews. The interviews are occasionally amplified with narration provided by the director, himself living with being diagnosed HIV-positive.

Common Threads - Stories from the Quilt
Sara Lewinstein, David Mandell, Suzi Mandell, and Sallie Perryman

As of 2004, a variety of drugs have been developed to resist, if not cure, AIDS—yet Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt remains as emotionally powerful as it was during the height of the crisis, when people were dying by the thousands every year. With a combination of photo-montages, interviews with friends and family members, home movies, and news footage, this 1989 documentary captures the grief of those who have survived victims of AIDS. It's wrenching to hear the mother of a hemophiliac boy describing giving him blood transfusions in the middle of the night, or seeing pictures of a former Olympic athlete with the daughter he fathered with a lesbian mother, or hearing a Naval officer describe his relief when he learned that he, like his dead lover, had the virus--that the stress of waiting was over. A moving combination of art and politics.

Drawing the Line - Portrait of Keith Haring

When artist Keith Haring died in February 1980 of AIDS, he left behind an astonishing artistic legacy. In his 31 years, Haring went from being an anonymous graffiti artist who drew chalk figures on New York City subway posters, to being called the successor to Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. This revealing profile of Haring’s work and world view contains interviews with gallery owners and friends including actor Dennis Hopper.

Frontline: The Age of AIDS
Will Lyman

How to Survive a Plague
Director: David France

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.

I Am Because We Are
Bill Clinton, Madonna, Desmond Tutu, and Jeffrey D. Sachs

In the African nation of Malawi, disease, poverty and famine have taken a horrible toll, especially on young people -- in a country of twelve million people, one million are orphaned children. In 2006, pop singer Madonna began studying the crisis in Malawi, and decided to use her wealth and celebrity to help; she helped finance the construction of a home for orphans, founded a relief organization called the Raising Malawi Orphan Care Initiative, and as a personal example she and her husband adopted a boy from Malawi, David Banda Mwale, whose mother had died. Now Madonna has written and produced I Am Because We Are, a documentary about Malawi that attempts to demonstrate at the need for action by profiling eight children growing up without parents; these youngsters long for a better life and strive to remain optimistic about the future despite the long odds fate has set against them. I Am Because We Are also features interviews with a number of people working to alleviate the ongoing tragedy in Malawi, including Bill Clinton, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, and leaders of a number of leading relief and charitable organizations. I Am Because We Are received its North American premiere at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival.

Investigative Reports: AIDS In America: The Crisis Continues

Many Americans hold the misguided idea that the AIDS crisis has largely passed, that the disease is now manageable and a cure is coming. Unfortunately, it is just this belief that is fueling a new wave of cases as the epidemic spreads. INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS interviews doctors, social workers and AIDS patients from every demographic to show the real face of the disease today. With a million Americans currently HIV Positive, and a growing number of them not responding to the latest drug therapies, the medical situation stands in stark contrast to the complacency documented in communities across the nation. By tracing the path of one medication--Calanolide A--AIDS IN AMERICA shows the hope and disappointment that accompanies every possible breakthrough. And by talking to those at the front line of the ongoing fight, a disturbing picture of a disease and people's views of it emerges. Now, more than ever, AIDS is not a "gay," "junky," or "minority" disease; it is a threat to everyone who is sexually active.

Jam
Tim Patten

The title of Mark Woollen's documentary Jam is slang for a roller derby match, and though many mistakenly believe that this craze died a rapid death after the late '70s, Woollen and co. use screen time to demonstrate otherwise. The film explores the half-decade-long effort of the Frisco-based American Roller Derby Association to keep itself afloat, via the concerted and diligent efforts of its members. Woollen profiles several of these individuals, most of whom are middle-aged, eccentric, colorful and flamboyantly gay; subjects include: Streisand-digging member Dan Ferrari, who claims that he would place a roller derby match before a luxury cruise; Alfonso Reyes, a player with 32 years of experience behind him who once turned tricks for $100 per on the streets of San Francisco, then moved in with the same partner for nearly two decades; and ARDA president Tim Patten, afflicted with HIV for nearly 25 years but insistent on pouring all of his personal money into the organization. The main gestalt of the narrative involves Patten's recruitment and assembly of a seasoned team of players, and his decision to promote the team's doings on the internet - amid a rapidly deescalating number of fans.

Pandemic - Facing AIDS
Danny Glover

Sex Positive
Director: Daryl Wein

Explores the life of Richard Berkowitz, a revolutionary gay S&M sex worker turned AIDS activist in the 1980s, whose incomparable contribution to the invention of safe sex has has never been aptly credited.

We Were Here
Director: David Weissman

The first documentary to take a deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. It explores how the City's inhabitants were affected by, and how they responded to, that calamitous epidemic.