It’s finally here -- a theatrical release of a film about the remarkable early history of AIDS treatment activism. This history, which we’ve never properly memorialized and honored, and largely unknown to younger generations, is often described as our nation’s last great social movement. If you care about changing the world, regardless of the issue, you have to see this film.

HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE opens this Friday, September 21st, in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, and expands to other cities after that (the full list is here). Rave reviews have been pouring in, like this one in The Nation. Over 100,000 people have watched the new trailer online (friends have told me that audiences applauded this past weekend after seeing it before movies they attended in New York). If you haven’t seen the trailer, I’ve posted it below.

It’s been thrilling and surreal being a “subject” in this documentary by journalist and first-time director David France. I was only one of hundreds in New York, and thousands worldwide, who were comrades in ACT UP. It was a movement, built on love and community, that changed the world. I still feel humbled to have witnessed it.