Silence = Death. “Health care is a right! Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!” You may have seen them demonstrating on the streets, but How To Survive A Plague is an honest, no-holds-barred peek into the world of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Advisory Group), and their fight to find help for those with HIV and AIDS at a time when nobody seemed to care, or were too frightened of the disease to do anything. This movie jumps right out of the gate, coming at you hard and fast with information and personal revelations that you can’t turn away from. A mix of history class and raw energy, How To Survive A Plague is a look back at how people with no medical training, no experience with the workings of the government, and very little public support were able to change HIV/AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic, manageable illness.
Plague starts with archival footage, breaking the years down in chapter format, from 1987-1995. This 1987 is very different from the one in Rock of Ages; it’s year 6 of the AIDS epidemic in Greenwich Village. “Even hospitals turn away the dying” — and if that doesn’t break your heart you’re made of stone. It feels like war footage, and that’s no coincidence: the fight for survival against HIV/AIDS was and is the war at home. Plague has a down-n-dirty home movies feel that gives the film an intimacy that wouldn’t have been achieved with a brightly polished look. The filmmakers let the archival footage they use speak for itself. It’s eloquence is heartbreaking and arresting.
