HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE, the story of the brave young men an
d women who successfully reversed the tide of the AIDS epidemic, has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards. A Sundance Selects theatrical release last fall, it will arrive on DVD from IFC Films on February 26, 2013.
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE movingly and powerfully describes how a dedicated and fearless group of people demanded the attention of a fearful nation and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. These improbable activists formed ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medications and treatments and move them through trials and into drugstores in record time. In the process, they saved their own lives and ended the darkest days of a tragic plague, while virtually emptying AIDS wards in American hospitals.
This award-winning film by writer-director David France (Our Fathers) is a classic tale of activism that has helped inspire movements for change in everything from breast cancer research to Occupy Wall Street. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Amy Biancolli wrote, “When it’s over, this documentary lingers as a testament to extraordinary human bravery. It stands as one of the most heartbreaking and suspenseful sagas of the year.” Salon.com’s Andrew O’Hehir praised it as “extraordinary, remarkable and one of the most important documentaries in years or decades.” Mark Warren, writing in Esquire, called in “the best documentary of the year. Extraordinarily moving.”
