"the Gift" (2003) - this is one of those documentaries where the incredible subject matter makes up for the kind of hum drum execution. There's not alot of art to it formally speaking, but you will not likely forget it.
AIDS isn't as deadly as it once was. People are living longer and, this is critical, people who have it are no longer pariahs especially not in the gay community. Quite the contrary, it has become politically incorrect in the gay community to even ASK if someone has HIV. Posters and billboards from gay health gruops emphasize that you can still be strong, healthy looking, and accepted when you are HIV positive.
Well, what has happened is that fear of getting AIDS is lessening and some people don't care if they do get it and even SEEK IT OUT as a means of getting the whole issue out of the way. "The Gift" interviews some of these people and some older, wiser people who ARE HIV positive and have heart conditions and so forth as a result of the medications they have to take. "only when people start dieing off in big numbers again" will this likely change, laments one young person in the accompanying mini-documentary "does anyone die of AIDS anymore"?
( Coincidentally, I was reading Michael Crichton's pre Roe v Wade thriller "A case of Need" last night and one of the characters laments the fact that abortion was simple and easy to get because it made it hard for it to become a political issue. 5,000 women a year were dying from illegal abortions, but it need to be higher for people to be motivated to pass laws legalizing it. It would appear a similar phenomenon is at work here.)
It's an hour and 2 minutes long. It's intense but not as crazy as you are probably imagining it is. the people are more or less normal just misguided
4/5
