How To Survive a Plague

Synopsis

HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE is the story of two coalitions—ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group)—whose 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.

Director Biography

David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982, beginning in gay-community papers. Today he is one of the best-known chroniclers of the epidemic, having continued in the New York Times, Newsweek, and New York magazine, where he is now a contributing editor. For his journalism, Mr. France has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, and has seen his work inspire several films, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film Our Fathers, based on his critically acclaimed book.