How to Survive a Plague (2012)
Directed by David France, 110 mins
Sunday 20 September 2020 19:00 BST plus panel discussion
Faced with their own mortality, an improbable group of mostly HIV-positive young men and women broke the mould as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment. How to Survive a Plague is the story of how 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.
Blisteringly powerful, How to Survive a Plague transports us back to a vital time of unbridled death, political indifference, and staggering resilience and constructs a commanding archetype for activism today.
The panel discussion after the screening was moderated by journalist Alice Hutton; Alice was joined by Jonathan Blake, gay rights activist and one of the first people to be diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 1982, Deborah Gold, CEO National AIDS Trust and Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner.
How to Survive a Plague first screened at Global Health Film in March 2014
How to Survive a Plague website
This screening is organised in partnership with Dartmouth Films. A limited number of tickets are available: book now to join us on Sunday 20 September; we will close registration at 5pm on Sunday 20 September and will send you a link to the event by 6pm, an hour before the screening starts.
Registration is free of charge; each screening costs just under £1,000 for us to organise. We are grateful for any donation you are able to make to help cover our costs; you can make a donation securely using this link.
Thank you for your support!
How to Survive a Plague: additional resources