How to Survive a Plague

Documentary & Discussion

Wednesday, 28 Nov 2012 at 7:00 pm – South Ballroom, Memorial Union

How to Survive a Plague is the story of how activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. It follows a group of young people, many of them HIV-positive young men, who infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time. Filmmaker David France incorporates never-before-seen archival footage from the 1980s and 90s, placing the viewer smack in the middle of the controversial actions, the heated meetings, the heartbreaking failures, and the exultant breakthroughs. A discussion will follow the 120-minute film. World AIDS Awareness Week Event
Director/Producer David France is an award-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author who has been writing about AIDS since 1982. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, GQ, and New York magazine, where he is a contributing editor, and has received the National Headliner Award and the GLAAD Media Award, among others. Several films have been inspired by his work, most recently the Emmy-nominated Showtime film OUR FATHERS, for which he received a WGA nomination. He is at work on a major history of AIDS, due from Alfred A. Knopf in 2013. Based on decades of reporting, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE is his directorial debut.

Cosponsored By:
  • ISU Global Health & AIDS Coalition
  • Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
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