Why Are There So Few Documentaries About The AIDS Crisis In Britain?

Originally posted on www.biggaypictureshow.com

The HIV/AIDS crisis is something that everyone from all different walks of life has heard of. From television, book and films to magazine articles, everyone has a pretty good understanding of what happened during the 1980s.

For gay people especially, the crisis itself is now deeply rooted into our consciousness, whether we were there during the 80s or not. We’ve heard about the people who died, those who fought for funding to try and find a cure and/or proper treatment, and everyone else in between who struggled long and hard to help people who have been diagnosed with the virus, as well as the families of the people who lost their lives due to it.

It’s even deeply rooted into our minds when it comes to sex, as we all now know the importance of safe sex and what it could mean if that one time we weren’t safe, we became unlucky.

But for us Brits a lot of the information we get is from our American counterparts and about what happened over there during the 1980s. For example, in 2011 the documentary We Were Here looked at the AIDS crisis in San Francisco and interviewed a number of people who were there and experienced what happened.

By doing so it became the first documentary to take a deep look at what happened and the impact it had on the people living in San Francisco and how they responded to it. Today How To Survive A Plague opens in select US theatres, which looks at the crisis and the early days of the activist groups ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) and TAG (Treatment Action Group). Those two looks at AIDS in America join the likes of the Oscar winning Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt.

However there has never been a decent-scale, feature documentary (that I know of, at least) that has taken a deep look at the crisis when it hit the UK. After all, HIV/AIDS has significantly impacted on a number of people over here and it has continued to do so since the 1980s.

We’ve all seen and heard about the safe sex advertising campaigns complete with icebergs, headstones and a deeply eerie narration from John Hurt, so we know it was just as bad over here. But do we know anything further than this campaign?

AIDS is still a problem now, with HIV infection rates remaining quite high and rising over recent years. It is definitely still an issue and we need to see and hear more about what actually happened to people living in the UK who were affected by HIV/AIDS during the early days of the disease, whether it was their friends, family or themselves that were affected by it, and whether it was slightly different or worse here than what people felt in other areas of the world. It is slightly ridiculous that for many British people, their knowledge of the AIDS crisis in the US is far greater than on what happened in the UK. Documentaries like these aren’t just about remembering our history, but also potent reminders of a disease that may not be the absolute killer it once was, but which we still need to be vigilant about.

Considering the success of the film We Were Here and the positive reaction it received, it would be interesting and helpful to see the effect a UK version had, told from a viewpoint that’s different from what we’ve already heard from over the pond.

Icons: Harvey Milk

Following from my last we remember piece about the film Milk, I thought it was only right that the next Icons piece should look at the man who inspired the film, Harvey Milk.

Milk is one of the pioneers for gay men and women in politics after he became the first openly gay man to be elected into public office in California. After leading a very interesting, successful and complicated life over his 48 years Milk was sadly shot dead in 1978. But what we have to remember is what this man did for us and how he gave gay people a voice in one of the most important institutions in the world, politics.

Milk didn’t actually become involved in the world of politics until he was in his 40s after experiencing much of the gay counter culture of the 1960s and very early 1970s, and had previously been quiet about his homosexuality. But when he did get involved he stood up what he believed in, wasn’t afraid to let his voice be heard or his sexuality known as he helped pave the way for many gay men to make their ways in the world.

After being born in Woodmere, New York, Milk majored in mathematics at the New York State College for Teachers before beginning a career in the Navy, where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. From the mid 1950s up until the late 1960s Milk embarked on several failed relationships with a number of men and worked a number of different jobs such as a teacher and a researcher, before finally relocating to San Francisco in the late 1960s with his then partner. After the relationship broke up, Milk drifted from different places such as New York and Texas before finally moving back to San Francisco with his then partner Scott Smith, where they opened a camera store. Then the politics began.

Milk’s political career began in 1973 when he became enraged after a state bureaucrat attempted to make him pay a $100 deposit against state sales tax, then again over government priorities. Milk soon began his attempt to run for city supervisor. After coming 10^th out of 32 candidates in 1973, Milk sadly failed to be elected but did not let this deter him. After gaining the nickname The Mayor of Castro Street because of his tireless campaigning to make things better, he finally won the election in 1977 against 16 other candidates with 30% of the votes making him the first openly gay man in the United Stats to win an election for public office and cementing himself firmly into the history books.

Sadly 10 months after being elected Milk was shot and killed by Dan White, in what is probably one of the saddest moments for gay people in politics. This assassination, which saw the killer walk free sparked the White Night riots, showing just how loved and influential this man was. His drive and determination have made sure that Harvey Milk’s name has lived on for the past thirty years allowing generation after generation to learn about what a great man he was and what he did for gay people around the world. His final campaign manager Anne Kroenber said of him, "What set Harvey apart from you or me was that he was a visionary. He imagined a righteous world inside his head and then he set about to create it for real, for all of us.”

And that is exactly why he is a true gay icon.

We remember: Milk

Originally posted on www.differentscene.co.uk

This week for Different Scene’s We Remember section I’m going to be looking at a film that was released just a few years ago but has already had a significant impact on the gay community, and that film is Milk.

The 2008 film was directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black and was quite a critical and commercial hit. It grossed $54 million at the box office and won two Academy Awards, including best actor for Sean Penn as Harvey Milk.

Released on the cusp of the Californian voter referendum on Proposition 8, that sought to ban gay marriage, the film couldn’t have come at a better time as Milk tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected into public office in California, demonstrating how back in the 1970s people were willing to have a gay man in office. It begins on his 40^th birthday and follows him as he settles in San Francisco and begins his journey into city politics were he waged various battles for gay rights and equality in the Castro neighbourhood and throughout San Francisco, it also looks at the political campaigns that sought to limit gay rights during the late 1970s that Milk also battled against.

As the film progresses it explores Milk’s romantic relationship with Scott Smith, which is truly touching in the movie and was played impeccably by both Sean Penn as Milk and James Franco as Smith. The film ultimately ends with the untimely tragic death of Harvey Milk who was murdered by Dan White.

The film itself is shot amazingly and the screenplay and acting is brilliant, as it flips through real life footage from the 1970s back to the present day film acting you can’t help but get engrossed. This film brought the name of a hugely influential, courageous and forward thinking man back into the mainstream, because lets face it Harvey Milk was remembered amongst a lot of people in the gay community, but there were people from a younger generation and people from the straight community who wouldn’t have known who he was, but this film brought him back to life, and for those who haven’t seen footage of the real Harvey Milk go and watch it because you will be stunned at how realistic the film is when compared.

This is why this film is in the We Remember section this week, because not only did it put gay characters back on the big screen and show that films with gay characters can and do perform well at the box office and at award shows, but it also allowed Harvey Milk’s name to live on once again, and show what great things he did for our community.