Tuesday, May 22, 2012
WHAT IT WAS LIKE
Today's gay film was a new documentary
This is about the early days of HIV and AIDS.
As an older gay man, little is new in this well done talking heads and photos doc.
Having been around at the time in Boston there is not a lot of new information here but there is an emphasis on how the gay community became a community and helped itself before anyone else including the government were doing it.
It is not easy to watch.
In a way, it is a ghoulish enterprise as many long lost faces are shown at the worst of their suffering. An invasion somehow.
A sea of faces from a newspaper. Mostly personal memories.
A nurse from the first AIDS unit at SF General. A counsellor from the Shanti Project. A gay politico. The mate of two men who died and he survived. And the flower man at the corner of Castro and 17th. He is the best of the lot.
I am glad I saw it but the impact was diluted by the lack of a new direction. But it is a time, now, when my time, the 70s and 80s are fading into history and need some well done documentation.
I guess this is the first wave.
I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5.
