How to Survive a Plague

Released Sep 21, 2012

1h 50m

Documentary

History

Drama

LGBTQ+

List

98%

80 Reviews

Tomatometer

83%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In the late 1980s, members of Act-Up and other AIDS activists battle indifference and hostility to bring attention to the disease and play a huge role in reducing the number of AIDS-related fatalities in the U.S.

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Critics Consensus

Angry, powerful, and stirring, How to Survive a Plague is a brilliantly constructed documentary about the activists who pushed for action to combat the AIDS epidemic.

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Thomas M

The best documentary movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/26/22

Full Review

Audience Member

How to Survive a Plague gets its title from the film's standout moment, near its midpoint, when AIDS activist and writer Larry Kramer shouts down two quarreling activists with one word: "PLAGUE!" "40 million deaths is a fucking plague," Kramer tells them, admonishing them for their incivility. It's a wake-up call to those around him, but it also startles this film's audience out of an archive-induced stupor. How to Survive a Plague is many great things, but it's also a bit repetitive in its first half. The way director David France elects to tell this story-mostly via grainy 1980s video camera footage-is essential, but it also keeps you at arms length for longer than it should. It was Kramer's impassioned call that did it for me. Everything that followed hooked into me like I was a fish after a worm. And maybe that moment will do the same for you. Maybe it'll happen at a march on Washington when an older woman opens a small chest that contains the ashes of a loved one and a young man dumps his dead partner's ashes on the front lawn of the White House. Or maybe it'll be when one of our heroes, covered in skin blemishes, loses his sight. At some point over the course of How to Survive a Plague, you'll find yourself emotionally overwhelmed and totally involved. You'll find yourself stricken by sorrow, anger. You'll find asking for France's forgiveness for nearly giving up during the film's weaker points. And you'll find yourself admiring this searing film as a total package, for that lengthy, grinding opening is merely setting you up for a total blindside of a catharsis. The questions the film asks don't, can't have answers, but listening to the film's heroes ask them is enough to break your heart. Could they have done more to secure an effective medicine sooner? Their case is one of survivor's guilt, and you'll want to jump through your screen and reassure them, remind them they saved countless lives. But the film also brings up (indirectly, perhaps) questions about the effectiveness of their tactics. ACT UP is the group at the heart of the film, and they stage peaceful but boisterous sit-ins (even a "kiss-in") to give their cause a voice. A few years into the fight, a separate group called TAG (Treatment Action Group) begins working directly with drug companies and governmental agencies that were at odds with ACT UP. To say this approach infuriated some would be an understatement, but to say it was ineffective would be a bald-faced lie. Those allied with TAG were at the forefront of the greatest HIV/AIDS-related breakthrough in history. The reason many of the film's heroes are still alive today was, in a lot of ways, directly related to the cooperative approach of TAG. That's not to say ACT UP didn't have its moments of triumph and success. On the contrary, there's strength to be gained from its members' persistence. The film and its director, too, should be commended for being persistent. France overcame the trappings of the archival documentary and turned out something profound and powerful. http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/how-to-survive-a-plague/

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I feel like this documentary is walking on thin ice with its political context, but I still believe it is a worthwhile adventure into the action group that saved millions when no one else would.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

How to Survive a Plague paints and intimate and compelling picture of the activists who demanded justice and inspired healing during the American AIDS epidemic. While it suffers from inconsistencies in pacing, the story HtSaP has to tell is as important and moving now as it has ever been. It's not just about AIDS, it's about the power of organizing to save lives.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The narrative of this documentary is told through video footage of meetings and protests from 1987 to 1995. Throughout the human side of the epidemic shown as the members of ACT UP slowly fade into a gaunt death. The US government had all but refused to increase funding, and so these condemned men became makeshift scientists and drug-smugglers in an effort to survive. While the science of this movie went a little over my head, what resonates is their effort to not be ignored while another life is lost every 4 minutes. The fight for human dignity is overwhelming. As is the power of strong-willed group activism which can help push an ignored issue to the forefront and saved millions of lives. While it's obviously not the most sunny documentary there is an uplifting power in seeing people fight for survival. It also gives the viewer a chance to reflect on the modern struggle of LGBT and medical rights, giving perspective to how much we have (and have not) progressed in the past 3 decades.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Effectively compressing a massive amount of archival footage into a comprehensive, chronological documentation of the AIDS epidemic, "How to Survive a Plague" may focus specifically on the deliberate genocide that took the lives of tens of millions of LGBT people, but it's ultimately about so much more than AIDS. Questions are raised about the inefficiencies of stagnant bureaucracies, pharmaceutical companies who hold out on releasing vital medications so that they can profit off of the deaths of the afflicted, institutionalized homophobia that still kills people to this day, the ignorance of those in power who don't have to witness and experience LGBT life/oppression and would prefer to ignore gay existence altogether, the horrific failure of religious abstinence-only non-sex education and other forms of religious oppression by those who's ignorance and distribution of false information directly results in the deaths of millions of human beings, as well as the the need for intersectionality in related activist movements. The story of these people couldn't be more compelling (the fact that several of these self-educated ACT UP members knew they would die before a cure was found is truly heartbreaking and leads to several moments of overwhelming emotional poignancy and power as they confront this fact). The movement ultimately embodies everything America is supposed to represent in that they rallied and called on their government to act in a way that was truly representative of their interests. That being said, it's also painfully evident that the country still has a long way to go when it comes to dealing with institutional forms of oppression as the rhetoric employed by conservatives two or three decades ago is still horrifically prevalent in modern day political discourse. It's vital viewing for any member of the LGBT community or anyone who truly wants to understand what it's like to have to fight tooth and nail for every ounce of political and social recognition in a society that blindly fears the unknown out of misguided faithfulness to outdated codes of morality.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

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David France

Director

David Barr

Actor

Jim Eigo

Actor

Ann Northrop

Actor

Larry Kramer

Actor

Gregg Bordowitz

Actor

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Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

David France's rousing and inspirational documentary should be required viewing for political activists everywhere.

May 26, 2020

Full Review

Monica Castillo

Bitch Media

There are personal glimpses into the home lives of activists that left many in my theater wiping their tears on their coat sleeve.

May 10, 2016

Full Review

Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

A compellingly watchable portrait of a battle fought under that most memorable rallying cry: "Silence = Death". Bravo.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 11, 2013

Full Review

Vadim Rizov

Filmmaker Magazine

Plague is an on-the-ground look at people responding to a crisis whose scale quickly became evident, a community record of a necessary response to fill a shameful official absence.

Jan 24, 2023

Full Review

B. Ruby Rich

Film Quarterly

For anybody who doubts that individuals can combat giant governmental and corporate forces and win, this is a great how-to manual.

Feb 28, 2020

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

An excellent film for both those unfamiliar and gay youth uninitiated with the dark days of the AIDS crisis, and the deadly struggle to speak up or die quietly.

Aug 6, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

In the late 1980s, members of Act-Up and other AIDS activists battle indifference and hostility to bring attention to the disease and play a huge role in reducing the number of AIDS-related fatalities in the U.S.

Director: David France
Producer: Dan Cogan, Joy A. Tomchin
Screenwriter: Tyler H. Walk, David France, Todd Woody Richman
Distributor: IFC Films
Genre: Documentary, History, Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 21, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 5, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $94.0K
Runtime: 1h 50m

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