Summary

In 2024, Act Up-Paris, the French homosexual AIDS activist association, will be 35 years old. Throughout its history, Act Up has invented a new, provocative, and radical way of campaigning; it has brought HIV-positive people and the gay community out of invisibility; it has forced public authorities and pharmaceutical companies to take the epidemic seriously; and, thanks to its information and prevention work, it has saved many lives. All of this continues to do today when a general slackening of youthful attitudes is leading us to fear a resurgence of the epidemic. With Act Up ou le chaos, Pierre Chassagnieux & Matthieu Lère deliver, for the first time, an exhaustive documentary account of the terrible yet magnificent history of Act Up-Paris. They draw on never-before-seen archives and the exceptional participation of those who have made and continue to make Act Up.