There will be a screening of the 2013 Oscar-nominated documentary How To Survive A Plague, which totally should have won the Oscar last month (but did not).
Peter Staley in a scene from “How To Survive A Plague” and a scene from history.
The event is sponsored by the Fenway Community Health Center (FCHC) and the Harvard School of Public Health and will take place in FCHC’s ginormous 10th floor auditorium at 1350 Boylston Street in Boston, one block away from Fenway Park.
After the screening, yours truly, along with Peter Staley — one of the main characters in the documentary — and world renowned AIDS researcher Ken Mayer will discuss the film and the all-at-once frightening and enervating time in which the documentary is set.
Peter Staley is there because he’s Peter Staley. Dr. Mayer is there because he knows as much as anyone about AIDS now and then. And I will be there because I wore three hats during that awful, tragic time: first I worked at an AIDS service organization in Denver before there were any treatments — a terrible time I had managed to put out of my mind until I was recently asked to take part in this event. Then I was a journalist covering all these issues for most of my adult life. And, of course, throughout it all I was a gay man.
It should be an interesting discussion — at times sad, at times funny, at times uplifting. I hope you can make it.
The event starts at 5:30 with a reception, then the film screening at 6:00, then the three of us will try to keep you around for the discussion afterward.
And, by all means, if you come because of this blog, come up and introduce yourself to me afterward.
