AIDS Awareness History Download

In an era when much of America turned a blind eye to the AIDS epidemic’s devastation, cinema provided a beacon of hope for those who needed it most. On this IMDbrief, we’ll download the history of the first movies to raise our collective awareness of HIV/AIDS. We begin in October 1985 with the death of an icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Rock Hudson, and the shocking news that he had contracted AIDS. From there we trace how films reflected the growing epidemic through Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s ‘Buddies’ (1985) to Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands, and Ben Gazarra TV movie, “An Early Frost” (1985) to the early Steve Buscemi vehicle ‘Parting Glances’ (1986) and 1989’s beautiful weeper ‘Longtime Companion’ with Campbell Scott, Dermot Mulroney, Bruce Davison, and Mary-Louise Parker. 1993 also becomes a watershed year for films raising the awareness about AIDS with HBO’s ‘And the Band Played On’ starring Matthew Modine and Ian McKellan, Derek Jarman’s revealing arthouse approach to dealing with his own diagnosis in ‘Blue’ to the Academy Award-winning Jonathan Demme film ‘Philadelphia’ that won Tom Hanks his first Best Actor Oscar. For more history downloads and trending tales, stay glued to imdb.com/imdbrief