How to Survive a Plague (2012)
Directed by David France
A story of two coalitions – ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) – whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made activists infiltrated the pharmaceutical industry and helped identify promising new drugs, moving them from experimental trials to patients in record time.
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(McConaughey’s Woodroof mentions how he was inspired by “some queers up in New York” he read about in the news, by which he means the members of ACT-UP, who did much what we see Woodroof also do here; see the documentary How to Survive a Plague .)
Vallée cites the documentary How to Survive a Plague as an inspiration for the scenes in which Woodroof, Rayon, and their allies take on the FDA (and the FBI, DEA, and IRS) to create, in effect, an alternative universe.
According to the press notes, Vallée asked his cast and crew to watch How to Survive a Plague, David France’s stirring chronicle of ACT UP released last year.
For a detailed account of the Reagan administration’s slow reaction and the gay community’s fierce crusade for a cure, rent the superb 2012 documentary How to Survive a Plague .
The frustrating procedural delays of the FDA during the early days of the life or death AIDS crisis have been well documented in two outstanding documentaries, 2011's "We Were Here" representing the West Coast, 2012's "How to Survive a Plague" the East.
The contemplative movie doesn’t advocate self-medication, nor does it trivialize the long and hard-fought frontline battle for effective HIV treatment in America (see last year’s brilliant doc, How to Survive a Plague) by elevating the rogue efforts of a straight guy.