Spread The Word: Teens Talk To Teens About AIDS

Meant to be used with teenagers, Spread the Word is a sporadically powerful documentary that suffers from lack of focus, as well as some minor editing problems. Cutting back and forth between a series of non-related "stories," we see deaf teens creating a quilt panel for their recently deceased teacher (sometimes voiceover narration interprets the kids' sign language; other times there's no interpretation at all); teens at the third unfolding of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in Washington, D.C.; teens presenting AIDS-related high school plays, including "Teen Teatro," a Mexican performance group whose dialogue is not translated (sometimes the audio track simply disappears); two teens with AIDS, Tara Fochetti and Duane Puryear, who talk about the realities of living with the disease; and teen spokesperson Ryan White's last interview before his death from AIDS. The fact that everyone's a teenager is virtually the only link in this rambling compilation. Spread the Word has some very strong moments--teen Duane Puryear's commentary is one of the most powerful testimonials I've encountered in films about AIDS--but, ultimately, the strange production choices (non-translated sections, and the disappearing audio track mentioned above) coupled with the fact that the program is poorly arranged make this an optional purchase at best. (See THE CHANGER: A RECORD OF THE TIMES for availability.)