October 20, 2016–Responding to the dropping of the short “AIDS” documentary Positive Hell from London’s Portobello Film Festival last month, New York City gay bookstore Bluestockings will screen the film this coming Saturday, October 22, from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. (Details HERE; full press release HERE.)
Also to be screened is Positive Hell director and narrator Joan Shenton’s previous film, Positively False: Birth of a Heresy. Barnett J. “Bud” Weiss, an organizer of the former HEAL-New York group, will lead the post-film discussion of this important historical document tracing the AIDS-dissident movement.
It seems removing a health-concerned film from a festival screening schedule is good box office. It worked for Vaxxed. And it worked before that for Positive Hell, as it screened to a good-size audience at an independent screening in London shortly after being pulled from the London International Film Festival last spring. Groups claiming to represent gay students had applied last-minute pressure on the festival, yet the independent screening experienced no protests whatsoever.
“Positive Hell is not a controversial film,” says Shenton. “It is a factual documentary charting the lives of five people who were diagnosed 30 years ago as HIV positive. They chose for various reasons not to take the anti-retroviral drugs and went on to live normally for decades, not least having children who themselves are now healthy adults and HIV negative.”
Bluestockings comments on its online calendar that the two films “highlight challenges from scientists and individuals to the current orthodoxy on the science behind AIDS. These voices have been stifled in the past. They have a right to be heard.”
“How Positive Are You” interviewed Dr. Manolo Garrido Sotelo, featured in the film, in its Episode 96. We posted the Episode in both English and Spanish versions.
The film itself is viewable from anywhere, at www.positivehell.com. But we invite New York-area HPAY fans to attend Saturday’s event and post their photos on our Facebook page. Let’s show our support!