How to Survive a Plague

2012 Culture & Society [Nf]

Faced with their own mortality, an improbable group of mostly HIV-positive young men and women broke the mold as radical warriors taking on Washington and the medical establishment. How to Survive a Plague is the story of two coalitions

Director: David France

Reviews

  • 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.

    Amy Biancolli - The San Francisco Chronicle

    26 April 2013

  • We're now far enough from that era that seeing it all again feels like a slap to the face in the same way that watching certain moments in the civil rights epic "Eyes on the Prize" chills your bones. This doesn't have that series' stately magnitude. It's smaller and crasser, but it's comparatively galvanic.

    Wesley Morris - The Boston Globe

    26 April 2013

  • ACT UP soldiers on today, as it must, given the lack of official attention to the resurgence of HIV among young American men in metropolitan areas.

    Ella Taylor - NPR

    26 April 2013

  • What's so remarkable about their decadeslong campaign, though, is how desperation led to inspiration - to the inspired notion that they, as nonscientists, could still take their fate in their own hands.

    Joe Morgenstern - The Wall Street Journal

    26 April 2013

  • The most heartbreaking scene shows survivors of the dead reaching through fence railings to scatter their ashes on the White House lawn, where presumably they still rest.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    26 April 2013

Awards

  • Best Documentary, Features

    Academy Awards (2013)

     
  • Best Documentary

    Boston Society of Film Critics Awards (2012)

  • Best Documentary

    Central Ohio Film Critics Association (2013)

  • Best Documentary

    Chlotrudis Awards (2013)

  • Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

    Directors Guild of America (2013)