Cheap NOVA: Surviving AIDS (Video) Price

Some of us grumble about genetic predisposition to hair loss, weight gain, or allergies, but imagine having a hereditary defect--say, a molecule missing from a cell--that seems absolutely to prevent the progression from HIV infection to AIDS. Not only are such people (about 5 percent of those infected) not complaining--even if they feel significant survivors' guilt--they're offering their bodies to the fight against the syndrome. Researchers and physicians working today, at Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, are investigating the possibility of exploiting the tendency for some infected people's immune systems to resist HIV indefinitely. These "long-term non-progressors" are helping doctors provide a potential breakthrough method for treating those who show the severe flu-like symptoms of the initial illness but haven't yet developed antibodies--in what constitutes an early intervention with drug "cocktails." The technique comes after years of frustration in the medical community with a virus that has mutated and become resistant to some of the most vigorous, expensive, and complex therapies. It's a hopeful story.

Surviving AIDS focuses on two long-term survivors: Bob Massie, an Episcopalian minister and father of three, whose HIV infection stemmed from clotting agent used against his hemophilia; and Steve Crohn of the NAMES Project (the folks who coordinate the assemblage of the AIDS Memorial Quilt), whose partner was one of the first gay men to die of an AIDS-related disease. The video strives to humanize people with AIDS; indeed, it goes so far as quietly to heroize people like Massie (called "the gold standard" for his resistance) and Crohn, seen going to church, playing catch, reading or painting in solitude, and keeping their chins up--sometimes in the face of great personal loss. Surviving AIDS also employs some of the most common redundancies and misnomers in AIDS theory ("HIV virus," "AIDS test"), and relies somewhat too heavily on computer-generated imagery, which depicts HIV as a sort of menacing alien spacecraft invading the peaceable planets of cells by means of subterfuge. However, despite these shortcomings--along with the altogether white demographic of its subjects--the video can be recommended as both a teaching tool and a response to moralism and doomsaying. --Robert Burns Neveldine

CATEGORY:	Video
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	01 January, 1999
MANUFACTURER:	Wgbh Boston Video
MPAA RATING:	NR (Not Rated)
FEATURES:	Color, Closed-captioned, NTSC
TYPE:	Documentary
MEDIA:	VHS Tape
# OF MEDIA:	1
UPC:	783421284036