AIDS film to show at IU

IU Cinema will screen director Roger Spottiswoode’s Emmy-award winning film “And The Band Played On,” based on the best-selling book by Randy Shilts, tonight at 7 p.m.

The film focuses on the tumultuous period of the early 1980s acquired immunodeficiency syndrome crisis, exploring the “mixture of fear and denial in the gay community, early disregard in the American media, apathy by the U.S. government and in-fighting among scientists regarding the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus that leads to AIDS,” according to IU Cinema’s website.

Taking place in 1976, the film focuses on Don Francis who works with residents and other doctors on the banks of the Ebola River in Zaire and realizes their untimely deaths are caused by an illness later classified as Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

These events lead to his research with HIV and AIDS at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when, five years later, he notices the increasing number of deaths among gay men in major cities.

These discoveries incite Francis’ research, leading to his connections with politicians, gay activists and members of the medical community and his effort to spread preventative knowledge.

Winning three Emmys including Outstanding Made for Television Movie, the film earned generally positive reviews.

New York Times’ critic John O’Connor  gave a positive review, saying, the film “adds up to tough and uncommonly courageous television,” Introducing the screening is Bill Darrow, a professor of public health at Florida International University and one of the researchers portrayed by actor Richard Masur in the film.

Darrow played a pivotal role in the demonstration of the sexual transmission of the AIDS virus and has been recognized for numerous honors for his scientific
contributions.

Follow reporter Olivia Williams on Twitter @obwillia.