the first ACT UP demonstration, March 24, 1987

"Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP", the documentary by James Wentzy which first shown last November in New York at MIX 2002 and at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, will be screened this Monday at Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village.

Over a year ago I wrote that Wentzy was [South] Dakota's [more ethical] answer to Leni Riefenstahl, adding later, in November 2002:

The ACT UP documentary was beautiful, but for all the evidence of the success of the activism it records, the reminders of how little has changed in the world in fifteen years is a horrible concomitance. Bush, war in the middle east, health care, drug company profiteering, oil, greed and stupidity. There were also the images of so many activists whose lives were destroyed at the height of their beauty and their powers. I would not have missed this screening for anything, but it was a melancholy, if not terrifying, experience, and one which an intelligent and generous world could have prevented.

Oh, just go next Monday. The time is right. Even Berlin thought it was important, the NYTimes still thinks ACT UP-style and substance is important, as is suggested by Jesse Green's Sunday magazine piece yesterday, the Ford Foundation is now throwing big money into a very important ACT UP oral history project, and a viewing now should be a good spark for the activism we all should be planning for a face-off with the Republican convention in New York next summer. It's important.

All ticket sales benefit ACT UP/New York.

Details:

Monday, December 15th, at 7 pm
Two Boots Pioneer Theater
155 East 3rd Street at Ave. A
Manhattan

[image from ACT UP/New York's "Actions" file, where you can view other documentation]