Films That Helped Change the Perception of HIV

This year’s World AIDS day, which takes place on 1st December, is focussing on campaign to put HIV stigma in the past: “Being diagnosed with HIV today means something very different than it did 20 or 30 years ago. HIV is no longer a death sentence. However, people’s attitudes can make living with HIV really hard. Some things from the 1980s and 1990s are worth revisiting, but HIV stigma isn’t one of them. It’s time to end HIV stigma.”

Film and TV dramas can play an important role in changing perception and helping to challenge people’s opinions about illnesses such as HIV AIDS. Here are a few that have contributed to the discussion and changed the way people think:

Buddies (1985)

The first American film to dramatize the subject of AIDS, the story is about friendship and love, but also presents the facts about AIDS known at that time. Directed by Arthur J. Bressan Jr. Buddies is about an AIDS patient (Geoff Edholm) and a volunteer worker (David Schachter), who becomes more and more deeply involved with his charge. The NY Times describes the performances as “unrelievedly sincere” and points out that while the movie is “on the blunt side, at least it tells its story as plainly as possible.” And “It ends with a cry for federally financed research into acquired immune deficiency syndrome and wider public awareness of the problem.”

And The Band Played On (1993)

And The Band Played On is a TV Movie directed by Roger Spottiswoode that details the story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it. Starring Matthew Modine, the drama received two Golden Globe nominations and won three Primetime Emmy Awards. The story takes place during the first years of the AIDS epidemic in the United States and is centred around an immunologist who is trying to understand the disease and the gay community in San Francisco which is divided on the nature of the disease and what should be done about it. The film also deals with the rivalry between Dr. Robert Gallo, the American virologist who previously discovered the first retrovirus and his French counterpart at the Pasteur Institute, Dr. Luc Montagnier, that led to disputed claims about who was first to identify the AIDS virus. 

Philadelphia (1993)

Tom Hanks won an Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ for his performance in Philadelphia, which was directed by Jonathan Demme and one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to tackle the subject of HIV/AIDS and homophobia. The film deals with a gay lawyer who is infected with AIDS and is subsequently fired from his law firm in fear that they might contract AIDS from him. After he is fired, he sues his former law firm with the help of a homophobic lawyer, Joe Miller. During the court battle, Miller sees that Beckett is no different than anyone else on the gritty streets of the city of brotherly love, sheds his homophobia and helps Beckett with his case before AIDS overcomes him. Philadelphia was a huge box office success, and became the 12th highest grossing film in the US of 1993.

All About My Mother (1999)

Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, All About My Mother is a Spanish film that stars Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Antonia San Juan, Penélope Cruz and Candela Peña. The film was a big success and won the Academy Award for ‘Best Foreign Language’; the Golden Globe for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ and the BAFTA for ‘Best Film Not in the English Language’ and ‘Best Direction’. The film deals with AIDS as well as homosexuality, transsexualism, faith, and existentialism. At the heart of the film is Manuela, a nurse and single mother to teenage Esteban. On Esteban’s 17th birthday they go to the theatre and after the show, he tries to get the main actress' autograph but is run down on the street and dies. Manuela is beside herself with grief and decides to return to Barcelona to tell the boy's transgender father Lola, about the death of the son he never knew he had. He is nowhere to be found but Manuela does find an old friend, Agrado and meets up with a pregnant nun, Rosa. Together they form a life and become fast friends - until tragedy strikes again. 

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, Dallas Buyers Club is set in 1985 in Dallas where electrician and hustler Ron Woodroof works around the system to help AIDS patients get the medication they need after he is diagnosed with the disease. With a big star cast including Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club was another critically acclaimed movie winning three Oscars including ‘Best Actor’ for Matthew McConaughey and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Jared Leto. As Mark Kermode points out in The Guardian: “Although the films are very different in style, there is a comparison to be made with Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia, in which Denzel Washington plays a homophobic lawyer who takes on an Aids-related unfair dismissal case, a move that brings about personal change and reconciliation. Taking a leaf out of Demme's book, screenwriters Craig Borten […] and Melisa Wallack pitch Ron as a recognisable redneck whose prejudices are whittled away not through benevolence but necessity.”

The Normal Heart (2014)

The Normal Heart is a TV movie directed by Ryan Murphy and set during the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York during the early 1980s. It takes a no-holds-barred look at a nation in denial alongside gay activists attempts with the medical community to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic. The movie received critical acclaim with Matt Bomer winning a Golden Globe in 2015 for his performance in a supporting role and the drama was nominated for ‘Best Miniseries or Motion Picture made for Television’. Mark Ruffalo was nominated for ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television.’ The movie additionally won a Primetime Emmy for ‘Outstanding Television Movie’ in 2014.