Award Winning Documentary To Screen Nov. 5

On Nov. 5 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., the Ann Arbor downtown library, located at 343 S. Fifth Avenue, will screen the Oscar-nominated documentary How To Survive A Plague, in the 4th floor meeting room. The winner of many other awards including Best Documentary Awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the Gotham Independent Film Awards, the film was featured on over 15 top-ten lists. The 2012 documentary is the story of the brave young men and women who successfully reversed the tide of an epidemic, demanded the attention of a fearful nation, and stopped AIDS from becoming a death sentence. This improbable group of activists bucked oppression and infiltrated government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry, helping to identify promising new medication 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 veritable plague, while virtually emptying AIDS wards in American hospitals. Theirs is a classic tale of activism that has since inspired movements for change in everything from breast cancer research to Occupy Wall Street.
The 109-minute film centers on of two coalitions-ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group). 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.
For more information, call the library at 734-327-4555 or visit our website at http://aadl.org.