Filmmaker France tells the history of ACT UP [UPDATE]

How To Survive A Plague
USA 2012; 110 min.
directed by David France
A Sundance Selects release

Peter Staley in action. Photo: William Lucas Walker

That's Peter Staley--former Wall Street bond trader; later, ACT UP's rock-star activist--who not only talked the eloquent talk but walked the kickass walk along with many comrades, putting the media, pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers and politicians on notice that a community terrorized by AIDS was not going to sit quietly, simply hoping for attention and help. It was going to get in people's faces and demand the research and treatments it needed to survive.

David France's exhilarating and moving How to Survive A Plague relates the boisterous history of ACT UP--all the triumphs and missteps--with a personalizing focus on several of its leading activists. These include Staley and Mark Harrington as well as the late Bob Rafsky who died from AIDS complications in 1993. Rafsky will be remembered by most for his confrontation with presidential-hopeful Bill Clinton that led to the famous "I feel your pain" non-answer.

That scene, from a Clinton fundraiser, is highlighted in France's documentary along with many others that retell the progression of HIV/AIDS in New York's gay male community and that community's dramatic, intelligent responses. Although a sprinkling of women and people of color are shown or interviewed, France has concentrated on assembling footage and gathering oral history that reflect ACT UP as an initiative emerging from well-educated gay white men with an inherent sense of empowerment commensurate with their rage and compassion. Along the way, we do get to see and hear from female advocates and activists--media-savvy Ann Northrop, future journalist Garance Franke-Ruta and pharmaceutical chemist Iris Long, PhD, among a few others.

Essential history can easily be lost. In a climate of right-wing backlash, it can get twisted. New generations of social activists working on marriage equality, transgender rights, immigrant rights and many other progressive issues today need to learn about these shoulders upon which they stand. And we all need a blade of truth to disrupt the nasty fog of culture war that has arisen once again in our country.

[Update: Frank Bruni writes about this documentary in the March 17 New York Times--The Living After the Dying.]

See a screening of How to Survive A Plague at the 2012 New Directors/New Films Festival at the following locations:

Saturday, March 24, 9pm
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue), Manhattan
(directions)

Monday, March 26, 6pm
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53r Street (between 5th And 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(directions)

How to Survive A Plague Web site

How to Survive A Plague Facebook page

Information on New Directors/New Films

NDNF fest presents "Pariah"

Here's one more must-see film from the Film Society of Lincoln Center's upcoming New Directors/New Films Festival, 40th Anniversary edition:

Pariah (US, 2011)

Written and directed by Dee Rees

86 min.
a Focus Features release

Oh, my, oh, my. 

Dee Rees's semiautobiographical Pariah is a fine, fine work of art. The story of young Black teenager's coming out as a lesbian in Fort Greene, Brooklyn has nearly everything going for it--a remarkably brisk pace, Rees's sharp ear for dialogue and true affection for her characters, the immediate and lasting appeal of her actors. About the only turnoff is the occasional, queasy-making hyperactivity of Bradford Young's camera but, thankfully, there's not a whole lot of shaking and swerving going on. For the most part, Young's eye is stable and stellar, with an aesthetic of light and color that makes this film delectable.

Aasha Davis, left, with Adepero Oduye
 (Photo: Focus Features)

Young budding writer Alike (pronounced Ah-LEE-kay), played by Adepero Oduye, is a work-in-progress, challenged to discover herself and take her place in the world while caught between far more experienced friends and a fearful, frustrated, controlling mother. Oduye has charm to burn and a sensitive fluidity in her acting that makes you care about her from the start. But you really come to care about everyone here. The excellent cast also includes Pernell Walker (as Alike's best pal, Laura), Kim Wayans (as the difficult mom), Charles Parnell (her interestingly complex detective dad), Aasha Davis (Bina, another friend) and Sahra Mellesse (Sharonda, Alike's younger sister).

We clamor for more high-quality projects for talented Black actors. Now here's a worthy project of that caliber, and--guess what?--it comes from a Black lesbian writer/director, telling a Black lesbian's exemplary story. Hooray!

See Pariah at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on March 26 (8pm) or at the Museum of Modern Art on March 28 (9pm). For more information and ticketing, click here. And here's the film's official Web site.

NDNF: Watch for these films

I'm recommending two interesting films to watch for in the Film Society of Lincoln Center's upcoming New Directors/New Films Festival, 40th Anniversary edition:

Six, Seven, Eight (Egypt, 2010)

Written and directed by Mohamed Diab

North American premiere

100 min.

Arabic with English subtitles

Inspired by actual events, this film interweaves the lives of three young Egyptian women of different class backgrounds and lifestyles, all victimized by sexual harrassment in a culture that privileges men and routinely overlooks these crimes. Diab's expert facility for narrative--applying both dramatic tension and humor--almost turns this fervent arc towards justice into a soap opera. But the straightforward accessibility of his storytelling in no way undercuts the impact of its message and the lasting impression delivered by lead actresses Boshra, Nelly Karim and Nahed El Sebai and by Maged El Kedwany, Diab's savvy detective.

See Six, Seven, Eight at the Museum of Modern Art on March 26 (3:30pm) or at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on March 28 (9pm). For more information and ticketing, click here and here.

Black activist Angela Davis (photo by Story)

 The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Sweden, 2011)

Written and directed by Göran Hugo Olsson

A Sundance Selects release

100 min.

Swedish filmmakers discovered a 30-year-old forgotten treasure trove of footage that documented the history and major leaders of the U.S. Black Power movement of the '60s and '70s. They mixed that up with commentary from artists, scholars and activists such as Harry Belafonte, Robin Kelly, Sonia Sanchez, Erykah Badu and Talib Kweli. At turns, provocatively questioning and surprisingly intimate, this film--as well as the political philosophies and strategies it examines--has decided resonance for us today. It's also an often beautiful and heart-wrenching work of art.

See The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 at the Museum of Modern Art on March 26 (9pm) or at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center on March 28 (6pm). For more information and ticketing, click here.