Pandemic: Facing AIDS

A re-edited version of an HBO documentary series, filmmaker Rory Kennedy's Pandemic: Facing AIDS, narrated by Danny Glover, personalizes the worldwide AIDS epidemic by presenting the stories of HIV-positive individuals from five areas around the globe--Uganda, Russia, Thailand, India, and Brazil. In Uganda, the focus is on volunteers who assist orphans and encourage couples to get tested for the virus; the other stories are about individuals: a former drug-using couple with a child (Russia); a young woman living in a hospice at a Buddhist temple (Thailand); an infected man whose wife remains anxious to have his baby (India); and a young gay man cared for by his family (Brazil). A good deal of the emphasis is on the degree of support (or lack of) provided by governments for treatment--from very little in Thailand to a full-scale commitment in Brazil--but easily the most wrenching aspects of the film feature the victims testifying to the terrible effects of the disease (social as well as physical); you are not likely to forget Lena and Sergei, or tiny, fragile Lek very soon. Conventional in form, yet carrying--in its unassuming, understated way--a powerful punch, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)